


Fall into me now

by papurosaurusrexx



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Asexual Character, Friends to Lovers, Jealousy, M/M, Multi, Negotiations, Polyamory, Speed Dating, gray boundaries in relationships at some points, its managed and talked abt tho!, oopsie but thats what happens when u dont talk about things fam, other ships arent explored enough or are minimal imo so theyre not in principal tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 15:59:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 60,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10857306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/papurosaurusrexx/pseuds/papurosaurusrexx
Summary: Niall's friends drunkenly sign him up for a speed dating event, and, sure, why not? It takes a while for him to realize that thingsmight'vegotten a little out of hand.





	Fall into me now

**Author's Note:**

> Is this thing on? 1, 2, check. Hi! Wow, is this fic done? Wow! Okay! I've been writing this very slowly since last year as an attempt to level out the amount of ot5 fics that are purely sex with those that dig more into their feelings, 'cause I think that's pretty great and interesting as well. But it sat alone for a while and then this was part of my "Nano" write offs and I can't believe I finished this, like two weeks ago? AH! Also, this wasn't supposed to end up being ~60k wtf, I am not sure how or when that happened. 
> 
> Thank you so much to [Natalie](http://zaynmonet.tumblr.com) for reassuring me abt the fic these past few days and weeks lmao. She made an amazing mix which you can find [here](https://8tracks.com/natalieisms/fall-into-me-now) and it's really great, the songs are great, the annotations are great, she's really great. Go listen to it! 
> 
> Also to Sasha for gently holding my hand from time to time with this fic, love u. And my irl friends who don't even know this is a 1d fic and won't read this, but still supported me so much con su mucho amor, mucha mierda y muchísimo café. Which, btw, if my Puerto Rican love for coffee transferred into this fic, it's a compleeete coincidence. Same goes to easy affections and friend-making, oops.
> 
> Ehm, in a more serious tone now. Honestly, I've tried on ace/demi labels in the past in a similar way to which you try on a shirt at a store, but then you don't end up buying it even if it's nice and it technically fits but you feel kinda meh on them. I don't identify with them at the moment of writing this fic, so like. I know everyone has different experiences in life, but I hope I've given it some justice.
> 
> Title from the amazing Carly Rae Jepsen's Gimme Love. All mistakes are mine and my last minute editing/re-writing, oopsie.
> 
> This was long. This isn't an Oscar speech. To end, remember the obvious rule of thumb: Don't share or talk about this fic with the people mentioned here. It's 2017. Don't do it, c'mon.

Niall shifted in his seat. Everyone else was probably already surveying the scene, looking around to see who was the most attractive. A nervous bloke biting his nails on the corner of the coffeeshop would definitively not be in the top twenty of that list. Fuck that, top fifty, if he looked around the room well enough. He forced himself to move the hand away.

Jesus, he wasn’t even sure why he cared so much, honestly.

This was supposed to be an easy fun night out. A good story for later. He was not supposed to be feeling all nervous about it.

This was honestly all Laura and Bressie’s fault. They’d been walking back to their flats, all drunk at four am, when they walked by the coffeeshop he currently sat in. 

“Niall!” Bressie’s voice had boomed out. “They’re having a speed dating event for your hopeless arse!”

He’d frowned, unwrapping himself from Laura’s arms. “Just because I couldn’t pull tonight, doesn’t mean I can’t pull at all!”

For some reason, it’d seemed like a good idea to jump on Bressie’s back to bite his shoulder, which led to all-around screaming chaos on the sidewalk.

“So, Niall, full disclosure. If you absolutely had to choose, lads or gals?”

“That’s not how it works,” he'd said, frowning a little.

“I know, but it won’t let me check both- Oh! Nevermind!”

Niall had removed himself from Brez’s loose headlock to walk over to Laura, who was tapping on her phone. It took Niall a few seconds to notice that she was filling out some blanks.

“Wait, you’re-”

“Signing you up? Yah.”

And so, more screaming and chaos ensued as he tried to steal Laura’s phone. He stared at the phone, blinking a few times until his eyes focused on the words and once more to make sure he was reading them properly.

“Ah, my name. Naill Hoe. Yes, thank you, Laura.”

“Well, at least it’ll grab someone’s attention,” she'd said with a shrug. Niall rolled his eyes as Bressie laughed.

The whole debacle had been forgotten until he received a forwarded email a few days ago with all the information for the event. While at first it had been a clear _no_ from him, it really couldn’t be that bad of an idea.

It seemed simple enough. You sat in a table and talked to someone for a minute and a half before switching. Everyone had to be single, no arguing or fighting, and no phones allowed during the sessions.

And it wasn’t as if these things were a proper place for looking for a serious relationship anyway. It was impossible. You only spoke to people for a minute and a half. Worse case scenario, he’d know not to do it again, he’d blackmail Laura and Brez to buy him drinks, and it would be a great story. Best case scenario, he’d get a good shag or two out of it.

What was the worse that could happen?

The answer to such question was the bloke who sat down in front of him, chuckling at the sight of his last name.

“So, what a name, right?” He raised his eyebrows. “I’ll still make an effort, don’t worry.”

Niall rolled his eyes, huffing out a little laugh. He slid down his chair as he crossed his arms. Seriously, who the fuck was raising these entitled men, anyway?

He didn’t even read off the name, mumbling simple answers as he counted down the seconds until that small bell rang. He was already dreading the way the new bloke’s reaction, given his raised eyebrows as he read his name.

Fuck Laura and her stupid drunken typing anyway. And fuck the organizers for bringing printed-out name labels. They were all adults. They could all write their own fucking names in blank labels.

He willed himself not look at him, even if it was clear he was attractive. If they were all going to be arseholes, it wasn’t make any difference if they were attractive or not.

“So, where are you from?” he said, his voice lifting up his words in a northern manner.

“Ireland,” he said, looking at his nails. He frowned a little at the sight of how messed up they now were. The nuns in his college were possibly right when they said he would one day regret biting his nails so much. Today wasn’t that day, though, but maybe one day.

“Oh,” he said. Niall looked up to see him frowning a little. “Right, I’m sorry. I hate when people ask me that when they see my name and here I am doing the same thing to you. But, um, I asked because your last name sounds a bit Asian? I’ve never seen it with an e at the end though.”

“It’s just a little unfortunate typo,” he shrugged, crossing his arms. “S’really Horan.”

“Oh, that’s a little more traditionally Irish, I guess,” he said. He leaned back into his chair, sliding down.

Now that he looked at him, he realized that he was easily one of the most beautiful men he’d ever seen. Top five, definitely. He’d taken an art class last semester and he really didn’t remember the name of that sequence, but his face could flawlessly fit in that squiggly Italian diagram sequence.

It was just, his eyes. Zayn’s, according to the label. The feel of his stare had caused him to look up and stare back, much to his discomfort. Niall had the inexplicable feeling that he could see into his soul and was deeply disappointed in him.

He looked away and sank a little more on his chair.

Zayn sighed, a hand going up to his long dark hair. “Look, I’m sure you’re a wonderful bloke. S’just that my friends blackmailed me into coming here and I really don’t want to be here.”

Oh.

“Mine signed me up as well. Apparently I’m hopeless when it comes to pulling, even if I’m not. I was just having a bad night, but that warranted a session of speed dating to solve my problems,” he said, laughing a little as Zayn smiled at him. “You hopeless too?”

“Don’t know, actually,” he said, tilting his head a little as he smiled at him. “My friends got sick and tired of me moping after me and my girl broke up, even if it was my decision, long story short. So they signed me up and didn’t tell me anything until about two hours ago. Saying it was an intervention or something, even though I’m ready to start putting it all behind me? It’s just, dunno, a bit intimidating getting yourself back out there, I think. And I think four months is reasonable enough, don’t you think?”

“Depends on how long you were dating,” said Niall, looking at the electronic clock behind him. Only half a minute left until he had to switch tables.

“About two years.”

“Then, yeah, I guess.”

If all else failed, he could always be this guy’s rebound sex. They were both hot and there were worse things in life.

“You see, thank you,” he said, raising his hands from the table and nodding a little. “But, yeah, at least we have that in common. They told me that I needed to find something I had in common with whoever I sat with, you see. We both hate our friends. Easy. Well, no, I don’t hate Liam.”

“Liam?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, my flatmate,” he shrugged, scrunching up his nose a little. “He’s normally the best, even though he pretty much planned the intervention. He’s around here somewhere, said he wanted to support me or something like that.”

“Well, if that’s so, I really don’t see how you could hate him, no,” he said, unable to stop himself from smiling and seeing the smile reflected on his lips.

A bell rang in the distance.

“So, you’re pretty cool,” he said, straightening up in his chair and smiling at him.

“Yeah, you too. So, Zayn. Meet you later after this all ends and switch numbers? I’ve got nothing to write with,” he explained, laughing a little. He cocked his head a bit. “Unless you find someone a lot better than me and figure that you’ll just forget about me.”

Zayn laughed, shaking his head. Niall noticed the way his tongue hid a bit between his teeth, forcing himself to look away after a second or two.

“I guess it is a bit premature, innit? But, hey, we both hate our friends. What better kind of unity do you want to look for?” He smiled, leaning down against the table and into him. The bell rang a second time. “I’ll look for you, don’t worry. See ya, Niall.”

He winked, lifting himself off and leaving with a slow walk that Niall could’ve never in a million years pull off.

Niall stared as a girl sat down in front of him. She was pretty and she was nice, but Niall couldn’t shake off the feeling that he had already gotten what he had came here for. He glanced to where Zayn talked to someone else a table away, leaning against his chair and his serious expression back on his face.

He sighed, willing the clock to move faster as more and more people replaced each other in front of him.

He frowned a little, tilting his head as a new guy sat down in front of him, basically throwing himself into the chair and his long hair flying all over. The bloke clicked his tongue as he looked down into his chair, frowning a little when he looked up to him.

“Have we met before?”

Niall hummed under his breath. Harry, he read from his name tag over his chest. Or at least, that was what he gathered from the set hieroglyphics that probably belonged in a museum. He leaned against the table, head propped on his hand, before it all clicked in Niall’s head.

He smiled. “We’ve taken a class, haven’t we? Um, International Law with Jones, maybe?”

His eyes grew wide, a smile on his lips. “Oh, I did take that class! Yes, I’m pretty sure I remember you from that one. Maybe even from, um, what was it? Sociology with-”

“Oh, yes!”

They both leaned back in their chairs, smiling at each other.

“I’m Harry. I’m pre-law, second year, so that’s funny…” He ran his hands through his hair, his voice fading away for a bit. “We’ve been near each other but we’ve never properly met until now.”

“Niall. Poli sci and third year. And, yeah, I definitely remember you from International Law, actually.” He raised his eyebrows, feeling his smile widen as he tried not to laugh. “You were the bloke who couldn’t finish his presentation because you talked too slowly and ran out of time.”

Harry huffed out, rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms. “Honestly, I was doing a very good job and had prepared very well. I was going to do a killer presentation and, to this day, I still remember every single detail about Malaysian human rights and I could talk about it right now except I would run out of time again.”

“Every single detail?” laughed Niall.

“Oh, definitely, the BBC calls me whenever something happens in Malaysia and everything. I’m that much of an expert now,” said Harry, nodding and widening his eyes. “But, anyway, yeah, that was me. Barely passed the class because of it, because Jones was relentless about how he wouldn’t let me finish. I was ready to give it again in his office and everything, but he said he would call security if I did that, so I didn't.”

Niall shrugged. “That sucks. You passed, though.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he said, sighing and taking a hand to his hair to mess up his curls. “What brings you here, then?”

He shrugged again, a small smile on his lips. “I was drunk and my friends signed me up. Thought it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to come here, but I still hate my friends. What about you? Do you also hate your friends?”

“Oh, no, I very much like my friends. Well, I know a lot of people who consider themselves my friend who I don’t really like that much,” he added, tilting his head a little and messing up his hair even more with a hand. “But my real friends, I do genuinely love. But, no, I found out about this event because I come to this coffeeshop a lot. Well, I go to some others a lot more than this one, actually, but I still come to this one pretty frequently. But I came to this one and I saw the flyer and I thought it’d be nice, yeah? You meet so many people, but not have any type of commitment to see them later or anything. Plus, my friend thought that I would be horrible at it, so that even motivated me even more to sign up. To show him that, yes, I can be a good flirt and all. He said he would come by, but I haven’t seen him so far.”

“Well, it’s nice that he wants to support you.”

Harry laughed, shaking his head. “Oh, no, he wants to laugh at my poor attempts. I’m sure he also supports me, but I’m sure it’s mostly to laugh at me.”

“Well, if it helps, I think you’re very charming even when talking about classes you barely passed,” said Niall, pulling a face at him. “An incredibly slow talker, but charming at least.”

“Be nice,” he said, leaning against the table and slumping down over it. “I’m just a frail human with feelings, after all.”

“I said you were charming,” laughed Niall, prodding at his cheeks where his dimples appeared as he smiled. “Is that not enough for you?”

“No,” he moaned, looking up at him from the table. He smirked. “You’ll need to go out with me for it to be enough.”

The bell rang once, out where the administrators were sitting.

“Sorry? But what leads you to the assumption that I’ll be going out with you any time soon?” he laughed, a hand covering his face. “I’m a man who wants and needs excitement in his life.”

“Who says I’m not exciting?!”

“Your slow drawl as you speak,” he said, laughing at the way he stood up straight in his chair, a fake-hurt look on his face.

“Excuse you, Niall, I can be plenty of exciting.” He smirked once more, leaning over the table. “Go out for coffee with me after this. ‘Cause I think it’s horrible that they’re not really serving coffee for us here, though I guess that's alright because I also had coffee before coming here, but also because I’ll show you how exciting I can be.”

“Coffee? Coffee’s not that exciting,” he said, raising his eyebrows at him

“Oh, with me it can be. I’m like a rollercoaster,” he said, smiling and wiggling his eyebrows at him. “I start out all nice and steady and, next thing you know, you’ll be screaming out from all the fun you’re having from riding me. And yes, that’s a pick-up line. Because sex.”

Niall laughed out loud, covering his face with his hands as he leaned against the table from the strength of his laughs. Jesus. Updated worst case scenario: at least he had an invitation for coffee with someone that would make him laugh. Again, there were worse things in life.

“What’s so funny?” asked Harry, as the bells rung twice around them. “I was serious.”

“It’s horrible.” Niall laughed, willing himself to steady his breathing. He wiped away his tears as he looked at the pouting young man in front of him. “See you later, Harry.”

Harry smiled, perking up from the force of it, before standing up and leaving his chair.

And, okay, maybe he did count everyone else that sat down in front of him. Five people who didn’t compare.

It wasn’t a big deal. A little coffee and a good time wouldn’t hurt, and neither would be asking for Zayn’s number before leaving. It was just a little fun that would most certainly not lead anywhere.

He was young and he should live it up, as his nan always told him. Fair enough, she never said it in those exact words, but the sentiment was the same.

He took a deep breath as he stood up from his chair, the whirlwind of people only getting worse as more people starting moving around the small coffeeshop. There should probably not be as many people in such a small room for security reasons. Niall did his best to distract himself by looking for any familiar face in the sea of people.

He sighed, seeing Zayn only a few tables away from him.

“Hey,” he said with a nod as they neared each other. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” he said, wrapping his arms around himself. “S’just a bit too many people here, don’t you think? I hadn’t noticed until now.”

“Yeah, I guess it is quite crowded here,” he said, looking around a little. He placed a hand on Niall’s shoulder. “You wanna-”

Whatever he was going to say was forgotten when Harry jumped beside them, smiling as he looked at Niall and then at Zayn. His eyes stayed on Zayn for a few seconds. “Who’s this? Are you ready to go for our coffee?”

Zayn turned around to glare at Harry better. “Zayn. And haven’t you ever heard that it’s rude to interrupt a conversation?”

Harry shrugged, nodding a little before smiling at him. “Pleasure, m’Harry. Yes, I’ve heard that before, but I often find myself getting excited about what I’m about to say and I end up interrupting people in the process. A lot of people don’t like that, and I tried stopping doing that for a while, but now I’ve just accepted that it’s part of who I am.”

Zayn hummed, looking at Harry up and down. His eyes moved to Niall’s a few seconds later. “Yeah, whatever, we’re going outside because it’s more comfortable-”

“Oh, sure, let’s go!”

Zayn took a deep breath, glancing at him before giving Niall a look. He laughed, shrugging a little. They only managed to take a few steps before they were stopped by someone else.

A shorter bloke with choppy hair stepped in front of Harry, inevitably stopping the rest of them as he frowned at him, hands on his hips.

“Are we leaving now? I would definitely not complain if you were going to leave now because I had to sit in a table for a full hour with a stuck-up bloke. I thought you were going to make a fool of yourself!” he said, raising his arms in the same manner that he raised his voice. “If not, then I don’t see why I had to come here.”

“Louis,” said Harry with a sigh, putting his hands on his pockets. “You invited yourself here.”

His eyes grew wide as he looked at Niall and Zayn behind him. “You have two people behind you, begging for a date?”

“Oh, I’m not-” started Zayn.

“I didn’t ask you, pretty boy,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Lou, will you please calm down just a bit? No need to be rude,” said Harry, placing his hands on his shoulders. This did absolutely nothing to calm his down. Instead, it made him look up at him with an alarmed look, raising his hands once more. “Just… Calm down.”

“Well, if no one minds stopping this peaceful and lovely conversation for a moment, I’d really like to go outside?” asked Niall, stepping out from behind Zayn to look at them all.

Louis pulled a face, taking a deep breath as he looked at Niall considerably. “Yeah, alright, I guess we can all go outside then.”

Niall took a deep breath as they went out the coffeeshop, resting his hands above his head as he looked over the dark street in front of his. He savored the difference of a few degrees between the two places, breathing in the slightly colder air. He felt a hand on his lower back. He looked beside him to see Zayn looking at him with a worried look on his face.

“Alright?” he asked, biting his lower lip just a bit as he looked at him up and down.

Niall nodded. He took another deep breath, letting his arms fall on his sides. “Yeah, m’fine. Just don’t like crowded spaces sometimes.”

He nodded, humming a little as he took out his phone from his pocket. “Gonna text my roommate, so that he’s not lost inside there too and doesn’t think I’ve left him.”

He nodded, turning his attention to Harry arguing with Louis beside them.

“God, what has crawled up your arse today? Can’t you let it go?” cried out Harry as he raised his hands.

“Let it go? How am I supposed to let it go? Have you even met me? When have I ever let something go?!” exclaimed Louis.

“Right, of course.” Harry sighed out. “Well, I was going to invite you to come for coffee after this with my new friends, but I guess now you won’t be,” he shrugged, turning around to look at Zayn and Niall. “You ready?”

“I literally never said I would go out for coffee with you,” said Zayn. He nudged Niall. “Give me your phone. I’ll program my digits.”

“You can’t just uninvite me to go for coffee!” resumed Louis, forcing himself between the small space between Niall and Harry. Niall exhaled, sending Zayn a look as he handed over his phone.

“Well, I just did,” Harry said pointedly.

“But we’re coffee buddies!” said Louis, his voice softening as he slumped a little in his stance. “The best ones out there!”

Harry shrugged. “Well, maybe you should’ve thought about that before being so rude to our new friends.”

“Again, never said I was your friend or that I would go for coffee,” said Zayn, glaring at him as Niall gave him back his phone.

“Okay, I’ll text you,” said Niall. He couldn’t help but smiling as he looked over Zayn typing out a quick message.

“You see, he doesn’t even want to go for coffee!” exclaimed Louis, placing his hands in his jacket’s pockets just as a muffled _go! go! power rangers!_ sounded off beside him.

Zayn swore, taking his phone off his own jacket. “I forgot I didn’t have it in silent, sorry.”

Niall laughed, realizing how Louis was also having a hard time at keeping a smile off his lips. He jerked his head in Niall’s direction. “Just get blondie’s number and let’s leave.”

“Um, no offense, but I kinda do want to get coffee, though?” said Niall, shrugging a little when he was the recipient of Louis’ glare.

“So let’s go get coffee,” said Harry, taking a step between them.

“Oh, Zayn, what mess have you gotten yourself into now?”

The four of them looked around to see another guy looking at them with a grimace. Niall looked at him up and down. He didn’t know how he could handle being in a loose tank top in such a chilly night, but that didn’t stop him from appreciating the visible muscles. He went over to Zayn, wrapping an arm around him.

“You!” exclaimed Louis.

The guy looked at Louis, sighing a little and rolling his eyes.

“Pleasure to see you again,” he said, raising his eyebrows before pulling a face. “Funny how life works sometimes, right? Oh, hey, Haz! Wow, you look so different with clothes on!”

“Wait, what?” Zayn frowned, looking at Liam.

Niall looked as Harry threw his head back in laughter. Louis turned around, nudging him with a hand. 

Harry smiled as he looked around to see all their expressions. “Liam and I run together sometimes and I think clothing can be restricting when exercising. It’s not what you think.”

“Oh, wow, yeah, that was unfortunate phrasing now that I think about it. But I’m this idiot’s flatmate and friend,” he said, pointing at Zayn. Zayn swatted his hand away, rolling his eyes at his smirk. Liam chuckled, his eyes travelling the group. “I suggested he come here, but I didn’t think he’d end up being this successful. Maybe I should’ve tried this when I was single. Pity, that.”

“Oh. You want to come with us three for coffee, Liam?” asked Harry, ignoring Louis’ protest.

“Again, I never said that I was going for coffee,” said Zayn, shaking his head a little.

Liam hummed. “I don’t think I should. Won’t end up sleeping if I do, plus I already have plans with my girlfriend. You should go, though, babe.”

Zayn stared at him, interchanging a silent conversation before sighing. “Fine, I guess I can’t say no to a cup of coffee. Even if the circumstances are not exactly ideal, but whatevs.”

Liam smiled at him, telling them that he should be heading off and saying his goodbyes.

Harry turned to look at the remaining ones, smiling at them until his eyes rested on Louis. “We’re heading off. You want to come? You have to behave, though.”

Louis looked at the three of them, pulling a face before sighing. “No, I don’t want to fourth-wheel this weird date.”

“S’not a date,” shrugged Harry. “It’s just coffee so we can talk better. At least that’s what I think it is?”

He looked at Niall and Zayn, who nodded and shrugged.

“Whatever,” Louis said with a shrug, biting his lower lip as he stepped back. “Don’t want to go anymore. Bye.”

He turned around, waving a hand before turning around the street corner. Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Sorry about him. I don’t know what’s gotten into him today. He’s usually great,” he said. He jerked his head to his side, placing his hands on his pockets as he started walking. “I know another coffeeshop not too far off from here that's open until late. So tell me more about yourself, Zayn.”

Zayn happened to be an English and Education double in his last year, starting his shadowing and practice so he would be certified to teach next year. Niall took a look at him, waiting for him to finish telling them a story about him considering switching to Music after taking an appreciation class.

“Wait, when did you take it?”

He grinned, scratching his beard a little. “Two years ago? I always fell asleep in all the theoric parts, though, and had to copy off Liam’s notes. Did you take that class too?”

“No. Well, yes, but I took it on my first semester here,” he said. "So, we didn't take it together."

Harry sighed. “I took it last year, though. A little bit more and we might’ve had that in common, actually. Maybe we would’ve ended up going out for coffee anyway, just the three of us.”

“Maybe, yeah,” he said.

Zayn hummed beside him, rolling his eyes.

“I’m just saying,” said Harry with a shrug. “It’s just three lads going out for coffee. It doesn’t have to be anything out of the ordinary unless you both want to. I personally liked Niall and I gathered that you also personally liked Niall. I’d never met you before, but I’d like to think that under another set of circumstances you and I would’ve liked each other from the get-go. Maybe the stars meant for us to meet, who knows?”

Niall chuckled, covering his smile with a hand. “Let’s just chill. We don’t need to over-complicate this. I liked the two of you enough and I do in fact consider coffee to be a date, but I can make an exception for this one time if you like.”

Zayn sighed, shrugging. “Yeah, whatever, I guess. You’re paying, though,” he said, raising an eyebrow to Harry.

“I- Sure, Zayn. And I’m definitely okay with this being a potential date. Not that it has to change things, but I just want it to let it be known,” said Harry. “I mean, I’ve always figured that I would fit a polyamorous relationship best.”

Niall took one look at Zayn before laughing out loud.

“How is that even supposed to make this any more normal?!” said Zayn, frowning and raising his hands.

“Well, Zayn, I don’t know. I just wanted to let you both know that I’ve got lots and lots of love to go around,” he said. He reached out across of them to open a door. He held it out open for Zayn, smirking when he received a glare.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, mate.”

Niall sat down on the table in the corner, smiling at Zayn as Harry sat down in front of him.

“So, Zayn,” smiled Harry, leaning over the entire small rounded table. “Niall and I have kind of met before, so, as a little icebreaker. Tell us your deepest, darkest secret.”

Zayn crossed his arms. “No.”

“C’mon.”

Zayn scrunched up his nose. “Nah, I’m good. I don’t know anything about you two, so why don’t you do it first?”

“Nah, c’mon. I invited you here and I already talked to Niall, so… Deepest darkest secret. Go,” said Harry, looking up at him and giving him a smile.

Zayn raised an eyebrow, giving him a look before sending a silent question to Niall.

He poked Harry’s ribs, smiling at him when he looked back. “C’mon, Harry. Be nice.”

“I am nice!” he said, sitting up straight in his chair. He sighed. “Fine. Then tell us something that not a lot of people know about you, then. Doesn’t have to be a secret. Or dark or deep, unless you want-”

“Okay, I got it, I got it,” said Zayn, nodding. He leaned back on his chair, his jaw set as he looked at the two of them, finally relaxing a little as he smiled. “Oh, well, I know the entirety of Outkast’s _Hey Ya_ by memory. Does that count?”

Niall looked at him, at his smug smile as the two stared at him.

“That counts,” said Harry, looking at him with a dazed look.

“Do you really?” asked Niall.

“Yeah. Why would I lie about that?” asked Zayn, shrugging a little.

“I don’t know…” said Niall, shrugging a little too. “A party trick for when everyone is too drunk to fact-check you?”

“Nah,” he said, shaking his head as he gave out a small laugh. “I personally think the song’s a masterpiece, the song of our generation, so it’s not that big of a deal that I know the lyrics.”

“Alright, let’s try it then,” said Harry, slapping his hand on the table and smiling at him. “Sing it.”

Zayn gave him a mocking smile, shaking his head. “I’m not going to sing it.”

“Well, how will we know if you’re lying about this or not?”

“Fine. I’ll say the lyrics out loud, but I won’t sing it,” he said, uncrossing his arms and raising his hands in a mock-defeat sign. “How about that?”

“Okay, fair enough,” said Niall, nodding and taking out his phone. “I’m going to pull up the lyrics, though.”

“Don’t you trust me?” Zayn chuckled.

“No,” he scoffed, unlocking his phone and googling the lyrics.

Zayn rolled his eyes. Niall gave Harry a thumbs-up.

“Okay, let’s start easy,” said Harry. “First four verses in the song. Go!”

Zayn stared at him for a second before sighing. “Well, first of all, you start off with a ‘one, two, three, uh,’ so if this is a trick question, I’ll debate that these are not really lyrics.”

“It wasn’t a trick question,” he said, raising both hands. “Go on.”

“Well, alright. Then you properly start off with ‘My baby don’t mess around…’” Niall read the lyrics on his phone as he continued with the following verses, nodding at Harry to tell him that he was in fact correct. “That’s not really that hard, though. Everyone knows that.”

“I didn’t?” said Niall, looking up from the phone.

Zayn smiled at him, nodding a little. “Well, Niall, you need some serious musical education. Hit me up and maybe we can work something out.”

“Um, hello? But not knowing the lyrics to this one-hit wonder doesn’t make him an uneducated music fan,” said Harry, raising his hands once more.

“I mean, whether it’s a one-hit wonder or not doesn’t matter,” said Zayn, waving his hand around. He looked at the two of them. “What? Don’t tell me you guys are like, classic rock fans or something. You both have faces of people who like that boring old, white-people classic rock.”

“I don’t know about Niall,” said Harry, “but Fleetwood Mac owns my heart.”

“Sold it, did you?” smiled Zayn.

“Sold what?”

“You heart.”

“Oh, yeah, they’ve got the receipt and everything.”

“How much did it cost?” laughed out Zayn.

“Doesn’t matter, because you can’t afford it,” smiled Harry, sticking out his tongue at him. “Point is, they own my heart and they’re a lot better than Outkast, by far.”

The two of them looked at Niall, eyebrows raised in questioning.

“Uhm, I have nothing against Outkast and they are good, it’s just not my type of music,” she said, raising his hands a little. “But classic rock isn’t old or boring, who do you think you are? For example, The Eagles are the best band ever in the world’s entire history.”

“The world’s entire history?” repeated Zayn, raising his eyebrows once more and crossing his arms.

“Yes.”

“Including all the world’s cultures throughout the entirety of their existence?”

A beat.

“Yes," he nodded.

Zayn rolled his eyes, huffing out a small laugh. “Well, alright, you’re entitled to your own opinion even if it’s wrong. But alright, it’s not all that bad. Led Zeppelin’s amazing, for one, but I get my point across, like.”

The barista stood over them, handing them their drinks before leaving promptly.

Niall looked at his phone once more. “Okay, closing that parenthesis and going back to the lyrics, I’ve got a challenge for you. How many ‘alright’s are there in the song?”

“You mean after the ‘ice cold’ part?”

“Yeah.”

Zayn looked at the ceiling, his jaw set again, before nodding just a little. “Fourteen.”

“What? No. I call bullshit,” said Harry, setting his cup of coffee on the table.

“I’m not bullshitting you. There’s fourteen ‘alright’s.”

“Niall, fact-check him.”

Niall looked at the phone, counting the words in the screen. He looked up at Harry and a smiling Zayn. “There is in fact fourteen ‘alrights.’” He turned to a smiling Zayn. “What the fuck?”

“What? No fucking way,” said Harry, taking the phone out of his hands. Zayn laughed as the realization dawned on Harry’s face, counting the words under his breath. He looked up at Zayn. “What the fuck?”

Zayn, the smug bastard, huffed out a laugh as he crossed his arms. 

Niall laughed at Harry's reaction. And if the night was going to go on like this, silly conversations and Zayn’s huffed out chuckles and Harry’s pouts and him feeling absolutely out of his depth sitting between of them, then... It really wasn't that much of a bad idea. 

It wasn’t until much later that they found themselves walking through the London streets, the chilly early October night covering them up. Niall had rolled his eyes at the way Harry would not back down on his offer to walk him home, the way Zayn would emphasize his presence every time by narrowing his eyes at Harry but smiling whenever he wasn’t looking. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel all warmed up from the walk and the company at the end of it all.

“So,” he said, jumping a little when they reached his building. “Thanks for walking me home. Might’ve not been necessary but it was nice. I guess.”

“You guess,” smirked Zayn.

“I guess, yeah,” he shrugged, raising his chin as he smiled at him. “So.”

“So,” said Harry, leaning back against the wall beside him. “Let’s talk a bit?”

“I liked this. I’d like to do it again,” said Niall. He placed his hands on his pockets, tilting his head as his stare switched once and twice between the two other young men. “Not sure about the three of us, ‘cause that depends on you two too.”

“I have no problem with sharing you for now,” said Harry, reaching out to pull him closer by the waist. Niall yelped, laughing away as he got pulled beside him, his hand softening its hold but remaining steady around his waist. “We can do this. We can just, be with each other, without any commitments or anything.” His eyes flicked to Zayn. “‘Cause I’d like to share you, too.”

Zayn sighed, crossing his arms as he looked at the two of them leaning against the wall. Niall said nothing as he felt his stare on him before it moved to Harry. Niall raised an eyebrow, finally producing another deep breath out of Zayn.

“Like, what? Just… Being with each other, but three of us? I don’t know,” Zayn shrugged. “I just met you two.”

“I mean, not if you want it to be?” said Harry, shaking his hair a little. “What I mean is that we should just, _be_. Like, we don’t have to worry about labels or anything. It’s like, we could agree to not be exclusive? I don’t know if I’m making sense.”

Niall bit his lower lip, shrugging a little as Harry looked at him with a raised brow. “I don’t know a reason why not? ‘Cause, like, as long as we’re all on the same page and agree and, like, it’s not like we want something serious? Well, at least I’m not.”

“I’m okay with everything being informal and casual,” nodded Harry.

Zayn sighed again, uncrossing his arms. His stance slumped a little as he looked at them. He sighed again.

“I mean, sure. I can’t see a good reason why not,” he shrugged. He looked at Niall. “But I want a date with you first, just the two of us, even if just once. Just in case, ya know.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding after a beat. If his intense stare in that moment - so different from the one he’d given him before on the coffeeshop - made it harder for him to breathe, no one had to know anything. “We can do that.”

“What about me?” whined Harry beside him.

“What about you?” frowned Zayn.

“If Niall gets a date with you out of this, I want one too!”

“Well, just ask him,” he shrugged.

“No, not with him! Well, yeah, I’d very much like that, Niall,” he added, pulling him closer by the waist. Niall leaned his head against his arm, closing his eyes for a moment. “We can talk about this later. But I mean with you.”

“Why would I even want to go on a date with you?”

“Because! I’m a great date!”

He heard Zayn step closer. He opened his eyes, staring at him as he did so. His eyes twinkled under the streetlights as Harry listed off the reasons why they should go on a date. Niall smiled, maybe even cuddling closer to Harry’s shoulder as he understood.

“Do you know any coffeeshop doing some sort of open mic soon? The Singing Goat doesn’t count.” Zayn tilted his head as he smirked at Harry, gently kicking one of his boots.

“Not at the moment?” said Harry. When Niall looked up at him, he had a small smile on his lips.

“Well, find one and invite me when you do,” said Zayn. “And it better be a good open mic. No weird, slow interpretive dances to Kanye or anything like that.”

“That sounds… Cool, actually?” said Harry.

“It’s not good in practice, mate. That’s why I said, it better not be The Singing Goat. Haven’t been there since I was subject to that monstrosity on an open mic,” said Zayn, raising his eyebrows pointedly. He looked at his phone, sighing at the hour before handing it to Harry.  “Put in your digits ‘cause I should get going. I gotta visit my school tomorrow morning and really shouldn’t have come out for coffee anyway, but- Ah, well, might’ve not been as bad as it could’ve been.”

“Might’ve not been as bad,” repeated Harry, looking up from the phone.

“Yeah, you’re the reason I’m saying this so don’t get too smiley, yeah? And Niall, I’ll text you?”

Niall looked up, raising his eyebrows at the situation between them. He’d been looking at them and he’d been hearing their conversation, but he’d gotten lost in the way they’d been looking at each other, nudging each other with their words.

Zayn was looking at him, expecting an answer. Right. Harry was also looking down at him, his eyes a little soft on the corners.

“Sure. Text me, yeah.”

Zayn nodded, giving him a shy smile. Niall didn’t know what to think about the way like this. He didn’t want to think about the way he looked down to the floor before looking at him, his eyes all soft and crinkly. It was honestly too late in the night for that.

“I should be going off too, now that you mention it,” said Harry beside him.

Next thing he knew, he’d kissed him on the forehead, resting only for a second or two before stepping away without another word. Niall looked at him.

“What was that for?”

“Oh, just wanted to kiss you,” smiled Harry. “But I also want to be a gentleman about this, since we’re sharing you for the moment, so…” His low voiced drawled out into the air between them as he finally gave out a shrug.

Niall nodded, finally shrugging and giving him a small smile. “I mean, I would never consider myself a gentleman, but if that’s what you want.”

“Well, since I have no interest of being a gentleman myself,” started Zayn, stepping closer to him.

Niall stood still as he felt Zayn’s hand sliding down his back, pulling him closer. He blinked. He wanted to get rid of that annoying space between them. He wanted him to stop humming under his breath, almost mocking him.

He appreciated the politeness, the leaving him some time to pull away if that was what he wanted, but for fuck’s sake. If he wasn’t going to do it, he might as well do it himself.

He found his chapped lips as he closed his eyes, closing the distance between the two of them. He hissed at the feel of the cold metal of his belt against a bit of his skin, the way his beard felt under his hands as they moved up to cup his face. 

Another hand pulled him closer by the waist, teasing its way beneath his jacket and shirt. He pushed himself closer to Zayn, biting his lower lip just enough to make him groan out.

It had been a while and he had to admit that he’d forgotten how much fun a good snog could be, how incredible it could be when it was with someone he actually wanted to kiss. And, fuck, he wanted it so much-

“Fuck.”

Niall huffed out a small smile, feeling the vibrations of Zayn’s groan against his lips. It was so different to the previous one. He didn’t want to allow himself even think about all the different categorizations he could listen to in the future.

“C’mon, this is not nice at all.”

Niall hid his face on Zayn’s shoulder, taking a deep breath. Right. Even if they were cautionary, those probably weren’t good thoughts at the end of the day, after all. It was just a snog. It was all just for fun. He took another deep breath.

“So glad he’s not gonna be around next time,” sighed out Zayn, pulling himself away.

Niall stumbled a little as he did so, finally opening his eyes to look at the two guys in front of him. He probably looked the same way Zayn did, dazy and lost to the world they lived in, but Harry looked again and again between the two of them, frowning and pouting.

“A bit annoying, but I think I like him,” chuckled Niall.

Harry huffed out. “This is not fair. I’m gonna kiss your heart out on our next date. Both of you.”

Niall blinked. He needed to stop fiddling with the loose strands of thread in his jean jacket. He nodded. “Okay. We can do that.”

Harry smiled, looking at Zayn expectantly. Zayn rolled his eyes, but he seemed unable to give him a small smile too.

“We’ll see about that,” he said. He smiled back at Niall, giving him a little funny salute. “Goodnight, Niall. Should be going.”

“Right. Goodnight, Zayn,” he said, nodding once more and taking out his keys from his pockets.

He looked at Harry, who, for all the confidence and smiles earlier in the night, now looked at him with big eyes. He bit his lower lip. “Goodnight, Niall.”

Niall smiled, rolling his eyes as he pushed himself on his tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

“Goodnight, you fool.”

Harry laughed, being pulled away by Zayn's hands.

“C’mon, good sir,” called out Zayn, stepping away from the scene.

His keys somehow fell to the pavement. He quickly scooted down to get them, looking at the two boys walking away before opening the door to his building.

 

Niall stepped out of the building’s side exit, stopping to check his phone. It was a relief to hold his phone in his hands after three hours of inching towards it to check the scores on Twitter, but not wanting to be thrown out from the hall by their antiquated professor. And he usually understood, but. The scores.

There was a distinct sound of a sniffle and a small sob behind him. Niall turned around.

There was someone sat in the bottom of the emergency stairs, a skateboard propped up against the wall beside him. The guy hid his face with a hand as he cried, another one holding a cigarette.

He couldn’t help but stare at the choppy hair. He knew that he’d seen him before, but he couldn’t quite place where it was.

The guy looked up, frowning at him. Niall realized instantly who he was, was about to go up and greet him when he instantly rolled his eyes, laughing out before taking a drag out of the cig.

“Of all people, it’s got to be you, right? Just what I needed today.”

“Um,” said Niall, putting his phone back in his pocket and stepping towards Louis. “You alright?”

Louis laughed out again, looking up to the grey skies as he wiped his tears away. “Do I look like I’m fucking alright?”

Niall crossed his arms, shrugging. “I was just trying to be polite.”

“Well, you recognized me, you saw me in this state, and you were polite. You can fuck off now, if that’s what you want to do,” he said, rolling his eyes once more and taking another drag out of the cig.

Niall sighed, nodding as he stepped closer to Louis. He shrugged again. It was as if that was the only thing he was doing these days. Shrug at loss of better words for the situations he got himself into.

“Well, I don’t like seeing people like this. ‘Cause, like, I’ll keep on worrying about you for hours at the very least. Especially when we’ve got friends in mutual-” Louis’ scoff interrupted him, but he decided to ignore it. “I’ve got a stew pretty much ready for when I get home, because this class’s always freezing up and it looked like it was going to be a dark, cold day… Anyway, you can come with if you want.”

Niall looked down at the sight of Louis’ glare, at the way he could feel him looking at him up and down.

“Why would I want to do that?”

Niall shrugged. “Dunno. Just thought that it would help you feel a little bit better. And I’d hate to let you stay here all wallowing up in the cold, so…”

He shrugged again.

Louis sighed, taking a hair to mess up his hair as he finished examining him. “Do you do this often? Find people crying on the emergency stairs and offer them stew in your flat? ‘Cause that’s a bit worrisome, mate.”

Niall smiled. “Not really? But from the way Harry talked about you the other night, you seem like a real rad lad and you most probably don’t deserve to be here like this.”

“He talked about me?” he asked, leaning back against the stairs and looking smaller, if it was possible.

Niall nodded. “Yeah. He likes you, and he seems to be a good judge of character from what I’ve seen around and, so I guess that’s good enough for me?”

“Because you properly like Harry,” said Louis. He took a deep breath and nodded.

“I mean...” Niall shrugged. If he looked at Louis closely enough, he could maybe put together the pieces himself, but that was probably a bit rude. He didn’t even know Louis. “I think he’s pretty cool despite being an uncoordinated dork, but I only properly met him that night.”

“Okay.”

“S’just a bit of fun between us, no offense. Which I probably shouldn’t have just said, seeing as you’re his best friend. I’d be protective of him if I were you. As a best friend, I mean.”

God, he’d really inherited his mother’s gift to keep talking and talking, hadn’t he?

“Alright.” Louis sighed, crossing his arms over his knees and a small smile finally forming on his lips. “Alright, but only in one condition.”

“Shoot.”

“You can never call me a real rad lad ever again. A lad? Sure. A real rad lad? Please don’t.”

Niall laughed out, throwing his head back. He held out a hand, helping Louis get up from the stairs. Louis patted his joggers, removing the dust and dirt on them before holding out a hand, his pinky out.

“You gotta pinky promise that you’ll never say those awful words ever again or else I won’t eat your stew,” he smiled.

Even if his eyes were red and still a little bit tearful, his smile lit up his face. He could see the allure from the way his lips quirked up and he raised his chin just a hunch. He could see why Harry said he enjoyed making him laugh so much.

Niall smiled, holding out his pinky.

“Alright, c’mon. You’ll catch a cold like this, what were you even thinking?” he said, cocking his head.

Louis adjusted the skateboard beside him before taking out a marker pen from his pocket. “You sound just like me nan. And this my spot. Like, my smoking and crying spot for when, well, for when I don’t want no one to find me. So, um, if you ever talk to Harry about this, please don’t tell him about my spot? S’kinda a secret.”

Niall nodded. Louis added another mark to what seemed to be a bunch of lines all together. And if they were all tallying marks for the amounts of time he’d cried here, then that was way too much crying, the fuck.

“Okay,” said Niall, repeating his nod. “Your secret’s safe with me. Don’t worry.”

Louis smiled out, sighing out in relief. “Thanks, mate.”

“But tell me more about yourself,” he said, turning to the street that would lead them home. “Since I’ll be welcoming to my home and all that.”

Louis shrugged. “Well, I’m doing my master’s? Nursing pediatrics, and now that I say that, I should find a newer crying spot in my actual uni now. I don’t study here anymore, whoops. I’m from Doncaster, which you might’ve had a hunch about thanks to my lovely, lovely accent. Um, I’ve known Harry pretty much all me life, since I was about ten years old, I think? So that answers your unasked question.”

“Yeah, Harry said that.”

“Oh,” said Louis, falling silent for a few seconds. “I honestly don’t know what else to say now, you know. Your mind always goes blank whenever someone asks you to talk about yourself, doesn’t it?

“It does, yeah,” smiled Niall. “That’s okay, though.”

“Um, what else? My favorite color’s yellow? I’m a Capricorn? I don’t like romantic walks down the beach? Who the fuck likes that anyway? It’s always cold as balls whenever I go, at least.”

Niall laughed out. “They’re probably thinking about more warmer beaches than the ones we have here.”

“Probably, but I've never left the country, so I wouldn't know,” shrugged Louis, looking at him as Niall took out his keys. “I can be a bit of a arse sometimes.”

He looked up at his soft voice and downwards eyes, the way his hands dug themselves on his hoodie's pockets.

“That’s okay,” he said softly.

“I- Well, not really,” he shrugged, biting his bottom lip. “S’just I get upset and kinda act like a wanker to people, then people think I’m always a wanker and treat me like one, so that makes me even more upset… It ends up being like a self-fulfilling cycle, if you will.”

“Okay,” said Niall, finally opening up the door to his building and waiting for Louis to step inside.

“So, like, my point is-” He exhaled, looking up to the sky before staring at Niall with sad, soft eyes. “I most certainly don’t deserve this. The stew and your friendliness when I’ve been everything except that to you.”

“Okay.”

“Will you stop with the ‘okay’s?” His words might’ve sounded harsh, but Niall understood.

Niall smiled, reaching out to take Louis by his arm and pulling him gently into the building.

“Everyone deserves a bit of stew when they’re feeling horrible. C’mon,” he said, wrapping an arm around him.

“Again,” smiled Louis. “Are you like this with everyone you meet? ‘Cause it’s a bit worrisome.”

“Nah. Only to good people.”

Louis huffed out a chuckle, falling silent beside him as they entered his flat. He sat down on the small table against the wall in their small kitchen, placing his phone over the table.

The slowcooker was done where Niall had left it. Good to know the automatic thing that shut it off was still working well, as evidenced by his intact kitchen. Even if it was improbable, it was always a worry in the back of his mind whenever he did this before going to class. He looked around the kitchen, wondering where in the hell Willie or Deo had misplaced his stew bowls. It wasn’t that hard to put them back in the same place where they’d gotten them, but they always did this and it always took Niall too long to find them.

Niall huffed out a small laugh as he closed another cupboard door. He tried not to think about how it was kind of like his life right now. Or something. He didn’t want to think about this right now, now was not the time.

He smiled, finally finding the two bowls behind some plastic tupperware.

Niall placed a bowl full of stew in front of Louis, making him look up from his phone that was laying on the table. Niall couldn’t help but notice how it was silently notifying him that Harry was calling him.

“Want some water?”

Louis nodded, picking up his spoon without another word. Niall returned, sitting down in the chair in front of Louis. His phone blinked up once more. Even backwards, he could see the way it read out Harry’s name.

“You going to get that?”

Louis glanced at him, quickly turning the phone face down. “No.”

Niall nodded, drinking a bit of the cold water to soothe his burnt tongue.

Louis sighed, taking his hands to his face as he leaned against the table between them. “I might’ve fucked up.”

Niall looked at his spoon, wondering and debating on the possibilities.

“Okay,” he said.

“No, like. I fucked up a lot.”

Niall set down his spoon over the table, nodding. “Okay.”

Louis took another deep breath, looking at Niall and laughing out loud. If Niall could feel the bitterness from where he sat, he didn’t have to say anything about it.

“I can’t believe, of all people, it has to be with you,” he said, resting his head over one of his hands. He looked at him. “Did you have fun the other night with Harry?”

Niall looked up at the question. “I mean, sure. Zayn was also there, I mean-”

“Yeah, I’m sure he’s a great guy and everything, but he’s not the one I care about right now.”

Niall nodded, buying himself a little time as he drank water. Honestly, if Earth could swallow him up right now in this instant, he would absolutely not complain.

“I- Um, I really don’t know what you want me to say?” he said, resting his hands underneath the table so Louis wouldn’t see the way he fiddled with them.

Louis sighed again, covering his face with his hands before they moved up to mess up his hair.

“That’s the thing, though. I just-” He took a deep breath, looking up to the ceiling. He bit his bottom lip and blinked furiously. “Fuck, I can’t believe I’m even saying this to someone I just met, and _you_ of all people. But, fuck, is it really that bad of me to wish that you were a horrible person? Because I’m used to Harry hooking up with people and being completely apathetic to them. I can deal with all that. But I’ve had to hear all about your little date all weekend and I’ve hated every second of it and, are you fucking kidding me, there’s two of you?! I think I’m very much entitled to my own opinions and feelings, don’t you think?”

“Well, of course.”

Louis groaned out, moving his stew out of the way to lay down his head on the table.

“That was a hypothetical question, Niall. As in you weren’t supposed to answer and definitely not in that way!”

Niall took a deep breath, leaning back on his chair. He crossed his arms, shaking his leg. “Sorry.”

“Don’t- Ugh, this is the fucking worst. But don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.”

Niall sighed, laying his head down on the table and waiting for Louis to look up. “Granted, I don’t know anything about you two, but, um… Have you told Harry how you feel about this?”

Louis chuckled, sitting up as he took a deep breath. “Why’d you think I fucked up?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh,” smiled Louis, picking up his spoon and taking another sip of his stew. “You know how to cook, too. Who the fuck are you, honestly?”

Niall ducked his head. They ate in silence, Louis sniffling once in a while and Niall doing the best to ignore it. It wasn’t as if he knew what to do or if something could be said. It wasn’t until he looked up to see Louis scrolling down what looked to be a trail of text messages with a frown, that he decided he might as well go big or go home.

“I’m really not sure what I’m doing here,” he started, leaning forward to take the dishes. “But would you like a hug?”

Louis laughed and looked away, crossing his arms as he did so. “Hell no.”

“Oh. Well, a beer?”

Louis blinked, examining him once more. “I won’t be keeping you from anything?”

Niall smiled, shaking his head. “Nah.”

“Well, it’s not as if it’s going to make me feel worse.” Louis looked at him, staring at him before finally shrugging. “So, sure, why not? If you’re offering.”

Niall smiled, albeit a bit faintly. He’d take it.

And that’s how he found himself lounging on his sofa, scrolling down his Twitter feed while Louis rested on the other side, eyes closed and head against the sofa’s arm. He sighed a little, picking up the two empty bottles and heading to the kitchen.

The door opened, creaking horribly as it did so. God, they really needed to get that fixed. Willie only glanced at Louis, sitting up on the sofa, before heading over to the kitchen.

“Stew’s done?” asked Willie.

“Yeah.”

Louis stood up, patting his joggers and quickly taking his phone from the coffee table. He scrubbed his eyes and face, blinking at Niall once.

“I should go.”

He nodded. “Alright.”

“Clearly overstayed, so, um, sorry about that,” he said, patting his joggers again and picking up his skateboard. They looked at each other for a second, before Louis did a little salute, waving goodbye and leaving the flat without another word.

Niall sighed, returning from locking the door. Willie raised his eyebrows.

“Were you two having a snogging sesh in our sofa?”

“No,” said Niall, frowning a little. “No.”

“We have rules, Niall,” he said, nodding pointedly. “Your rules. No sofa.”

“We weren’t!”

“Whatever.”

Niall rolled his eyes, going up to do his dishes. There were other things to do and overanalize in his life, and that was exactly what he was planning on doing.

 

Niall bit his lower lip. The lights were dimmed low as the fairy lights lit up the place. There was some soft rock playing in the background softly, and now that he thought about it, it was the perfect way to describe this coffeeshop. Soft.

Harry sat down beside him, handing him his coffee. He took a sip from his, giving Niall a soft smile. His long hair was tied up in a knot above his head today. He wanted to curl up against him and his big, beige jumper while they talked, but Niall just shifted in his seat, crossing his legs and swirling his coffee in the cup a little.

If he thought to all the times he’d seen him half-naked on their mutual friend’s photos on a night out, he wouldn’t never guessed he frequented places like this. Not with that smirk and shoulders thrown back with confidence. Well, not that Niall’s own photos on nights out should define who he is, either way.

He smiled, drinking from his cup.

Harry sighed, leaning against the table. “Why can’t I kiss you now?”

Niall rolled his eyes. That was the first thing Harry had asked since they met up after their classes to walk to this coffeeshop, pouting a little when Niall laughed and gave him a "no, not yet." He had to admit, though, he had an adorable pout.

“’Cause I had to wait a few days to kiss you,” Niall said. “If I had to wait, you can too.”

“But I did wait. I’ve done my waiting. Twelve years of it!” he said in a faux-exclamation, setting down his cup on the table.

“Ah, but you weren’t in Azkaban, love. It doesn’t count,” Niall smiled, taking a sip of his mocha.

He huffed out a laugh, slumping down on his chair as he leaned more against the table. “Just messing around. How’s your week been? You alright?”

Niall smiled, setting his coffee down on the table. “Yeah, it’s all good. Well, as good as it can be when you’re taking the human rights lectured by Hughes, but I’m good.”

Harry’s eyes grew wide. “Why are you doing that to yourself? I don’t think it isn’t a requisite for poli sci people, is it?”

“Nah, not really, but I really wanted to take it even it if was going to be a hell of a challenge, so…” Niall shrugged, crossing his arms a little and sliding down the chair.

“So, like, that’s what you’re going to use your degree for?” he said, smiling at him. “Be a good politician or something on social justice?”

Niall tilted his head, humming a little. “Dunno about being a politician, but I’m not gonna discard the possibility? Because, like, it’s a way you can do stuff for people, if you do your job well enough, but even so, there’s so much adversity up there. And I definitely want to do something in this world. Something good. I wouldn’t want to stay up tied up to a desk all day, and let other people do actual good stuff. I wanna, like…”

“Do stuff?” smirked Harry.

He huffed out a chuckle, rolling his eyes. “Shut up.”

Harry laughed, throwing his head back. “That’s good, though. That’s real good.”

“What about you? I don’t really see you as a typical attorney,” he said, raising an eyebrow at him. “No offense, though, if that’s what you want to do.”

“That’s because I want to be a prosecutor,” he smiled out.

Niall narrowed his eyes. “Seriously?”

He smiled, shaking his head. “Nah, dunno yet? I’ve been playing with the idea of heading into the music industry as an attorney? ‘Cause I do like law well enough, don’t get me wrong, but I kinda do not want to deal with all the negativity in the courthouses.” He shrugged, watching as he swirled his coffee in his cup. “Like, did you know that songwriters get paid barely anything with streaming services? And, well, of course everyone’s got a necessary job to create a good song, but songwriters are one of the most essential people in the industry. The world and the industry is changing, so the laws gotta change with them too, you see.”

Niall smiled at him, blaming the warmth in his chest from the heat of the coffee and the jumper he decided to wear today.

“What’s your favorite music, then?” he asked, smiling at him. “'Cause you gotta truly love music if you’re thinking of heading into the industry.”

Harry narrowed his eyes a little. “You’re not going to do the whole real good music spiel I had to hear about from Zayn last time right?”

Niall uncrossed his legs, standing up straight. “No? It’s just an honest question, like. There’s no wrong answer.”

Harry smiled widely, his dimples forming once more in his cheeks and his eyes lighting up. “Oh, then, everything.”

Niall felt himself mirroring his smile, taking a deep breath as he watched him. “You and me are going to get along so well, Haz.”

He smiled, instantly rambling on about his favorite genres and artists and being unable to say which was his favorite song ever, because it was really relative and depending on your mood, wasn’t it? Niall smiled throughout it all, pitching in his own thoughts and agreeing with pretty much everything - save his opinion on Bieber; he was a musical genius, despite his many personal faults - and loving every minute of it, leaving his coffee forgotten over the table.

He looked at Harry, as he calmed down and started more and more paying attention to his swirling coffee in his hands.

“You’re not, um…” Harry drawled out, keeping silent for a while. He looked to his side, biting his lip a little. He looked up as Niall nudged his leg, letting him know that he could go on. “You’re not, well, disappointed? I guess I can choose that word. Dunno.”

“Why would I be?” he asked, frowning and tilting his head at him.

Harry looked down, taking a sip of his coffee. He shrugged. “Dunno, some people already have their own ideas and expectations about speed dating, I guess. Kinda have a shag or two with the person, but then you realize that first impressions of the person didn’t really reflect who they are, or there’s other stuff about them that are huge turn offs, and that’s where everything just… stops. And here I am, um… Yeah, and here I am.”

“Hey,” Niall said, covering his hands. “I wanted to come here and have coffee with you. I was actually looking forward for it. And I’ve been having a good time.”

“Really?” he asked, smiling out so wide that his dimples formed out. Niall dug down the feeling of wanting to kiss them.

“Yeah, really,” he said, tightening his hold on his hands just slightly. “And I honestly had no expectations at all. It was just my friends’ fault that I went there and just, well, why not, you know?”

Harry smiled, looking down at the empty mug in his hands. Niall didn’t know how to understand the fact that they’d been walking around each other for a few years now, only meeting in a crazy speed dating event that only allowed them to talk for a few minutes. Apparently that was the only thing they needed, a few minutes.

To become friends, he added, finishing his coffee. A friend who he wanted to kiss after a coffee date, but friends nonetheless.

As if brought up by his own mind, he suddenly found Harry’s lips carefully brushing his. He sat back, blinking at Harry and the way he suddenly frowned.

“Was that… not okay?” he asked, making to move away. “Sorry, I ju-”

Niall placed his hands over his knees to kiss him better. He savored his soft, thin lips, smiling against them. Harry leaned back, pecking his lips once more.

Harry smiled at him once more, leaning against the table between them. “I really wanted to do that at the moment,” he said, voice low and slow as he smiled wider.

“I’ve been waiting for you to do that for a while now,” he smirked.

“Why didn’t you, then?”

“Thought I’d let you go first, since you’re such a gentleman and all.”

Harry rolled his eyes, a contained smile on his lips. He was about to make a joke about that when Harry interrupted his thought process.

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

Harry shrugged. He stood up, brushing his jeans as he looked down. He raised an eyebrow at Niall. “Want to come with, just walk around for a while? I’m going to start to get all jittery in a while, ‘cause of the caffeine, and maybe I should’ve asked you before standing up…” He said, slowly sitting back down on his seat.

Niall rolled his eyes, taking his bag off his seat before standing up.

“C’mon, then,” he said, cocking his head towards the door.

Harry smiled, quickly standing up and following him out the warm coffee shop into the chilly London streets. The breeze seemed to cut through his exposed skin, making his feel like this winter was going to be colder than the rest, but he found his hands found themselves tying themselves to Harry’s

If Niall found himself walking closer to him, it was definitely for additional warmth that the contact didn’t provide. Definitely.

 

Niall looked at the phone once more as he turned at the road, checking the address. He knew that he’d walked through this street before, but it was probably some time he was drunk because his sense of direction was not telling him that much.

He sent a text notifying he was outside, scrolling up to the conversation. He smiled as he reread Zayn’s messages.

_Hey soz i hadn t texted u, crazy week but still wanna see u ? if u want u could just come over and chill w a movie or smtng ?_

Niall smiled as Zayn opened the door to the building, flashing a wide, albeit tired smile.

“Hey,” he said, drawing it out as he welcomed him into his warm arms.

“Hi,” he smiled, moving away from the place he’d hid his nose on Zayn’s hoodie and pressing a kiss on his cheek.

“Sorry I took a while,” he said later as he toed off his shoes inside the flat. “You want something to drink?”

He shook his head. He looked at the narrow flat as he took off his jacket. The blinds were shut, but there was still some rays of afternoon sunlight sneaking through the windows, a few of them hitting Niall’s eyes as he followed Zayn to one of the two doors facing each other at the very end of the flat.

“So I’m doing the teacher’s prep and I’m taking the last class you need before you do your practice, right?” Niall stared as he went up to redo his messy hair tie, the way his shirt slightly rode up his body. He nodded, looking back up at him. “I was shadowing this teacher and I mentioned last week - the morning after coffee, actually - how he would mentor me next semester, and he goes all ‘oh, no. I agreed for you to shadow me, not that I’d mentor you.’ Which is absolute bullshit, because you sign up for both things, like.” He took a deep breath. “But I’ve had to look for someone else and convince them to let me shadow them for the rest of the semester and then mentor me the next, redo all the work I’ve done so far in the semester so it reflects this new teacher, and all this without falling behind in any of my classes. Hence, why I took a while to text you, I’m sorry.”

“There’s no way to say this without sounding like I don’t care, but that sucks,” said Niall, following Zayn’s motions to lay down on the bed. He propped himself up on his elbows, looking at him. “You want a hug, though?”

He smiled, looking up from his laptop. “Sure, babe.”

Niall moved sideways to snuggle up against him, his face against his shoulder. He smiled, looking down to his laptop screen.

“What’re you going to treat me with in this fine Netflix and chill sesh?” he smiled, looking up at him.

“About that, I was thinking about my message afterwards and I thought you might come to that conclusion,” he said. “We can do whatever you want, babe, but I’ll probably fall asleep on you so I’d rather not, honestly?”

“That’s alright,” he said. “At least you’re honest about it.”

“I’ll probably fall asleep regardless, honestly, though, so why don’t you choose the movie?” Zayn suggested, moving the laptop a bit towards him.

“Yeah?”

“Sure, just don’t put anything boring, like.”

He chuckled, sitting up a little to take his laptop. “No pressure.”

“No, none at all,” he smiled, stretching out over his bed.

Niall averted his eyes, focusing on the computer screen.

“Does Planet Earth constitute boring for you?” he asked, hovering over it.

“Nah, it’s more… um, soothing? That’s the word, yeah. I might fall asleep, but put in on.”

Indeed, that was what Zayn did not even fifteen minutes into the episode, no matter how many ‘oh, that's so cute, innit?’s and ‘oh, no, that’s pretty cruel;s he'd uttered during the previous portion of the episode.

Niall sighed, covering his hand resting over his waist. He felt Zayn nudge closer towards him, a leg linking with his as he turned around. Well, honestly, he'd had worse dates than this.

He heard a door open and close in the distance, barely over the sound of the waterfalls on his earbud. Not a few seconds later, the door beside him opened, revealing momentarily another guy.

"Hey, Zayn- Oh, shit. Oops."

He closed the door before Niall could take him in completely with his running gear.

Zayn stirred beside him, sitting up as much as he could as the door closed.

"Li? Whassup?"

Right, the flatmate he met very briefly less than a week ago.

"Nevermind!" 

"Nah, you already woke me up from my nap. Might as well come up and tell me," he said. He muttered an apology to Niall before sighing and standing up from his bed.

"No, nothing I was just-" Zayn opened the door, revealing a relatively small and sweaty Liam trying to push a relatively tall and not-sweaty Harry away from the door.

"Hiiiii," he said, smiling at Zayn before noticing him. "Oh, hi, Niall!”

Liam sighed, throwing his hands in the air. Harry slipped passed by him, quickly pecking Zayn on the lips before going up to do the same to Niall.

"Hey, Haz," he said, pausing the video on the computer and removing his earbuds. He smiled as Harry plopped down the bed beside him and hiding his face on his shoulder.

"Did your mother ever teach you not to invite yourself to places?" asked Zayn, turning around to glare at an unwatching Harry.

Harry flipped over, placing his hands over his head and smiling at Zayn. "I think she tried to, yeah. Several times, in fact. It’s not her fault, though. S'just me."

"I'm so, so sorry Zayn," said Liam, stepping into the room and looking at him with big eyes. "I swear I didn't know, maybe you told me but I forgot because I've been so stressed with everything-"

"I'm not mad," said Zayn, placing his hands over Liam's shoulders. Liam visibly relaxed, biting his lower lip a little.

"I'm not sure I understand what's happening here, actually? I thought you two were, um-"

"Oh, we are, kind of. We did kinda go on a date for that open mic, yeah," said Zayn, looking behind him to smile at Harry for a while.

Niall sensed Liam's eyes on him so, he just "and Harry and I went on another coffee date together, so it's just with me hanging out with Zayn now."

"Oh, um, okay," said Liam, nodding a little and taking out a strand of hair out of his face. "Okay, good to know I guess? For future reference, so you three don't give me a small heart attack like you just did right now."

"What's this about, though?" asked Zayn, taking an arm around Liam. "Why bring him here?"

"I've got a name," huffed out Harry, pouting and propping himself up on his elbows.

Niall smiled, unable to help himself before kissing him gently. "You're cute, you know?"

Harry scoffed. "Cute? I'm handsome. A hunk."

Niall laughed out, feeling the nice feeling of satisfaction as the others laughed along with him. Even Harry smiled, rolling his eyes a little, but he forced himself to refrain from kissing him again, because it didn't erase the fact that he was in a sort of date with Zayn, who was some footsteps away.

"I found him when I was running and I thought you'd like to see him seeing as you wouldn't shut up about your date with him, so I-"

Zayn’s eyes grew wide. "Liam-"

"You wouldn't shut up about our date?!"

"Oops," said Liam, making a face as Zayn covered his face with his hands and Harry stood up from his bed beaming at him.

"Don't listen to Liam,” said Zayn, his hands drawing Harry close to him.

"You enjoyed it, though," smiled Harry.

Zayn sighed, brushing his long hair with his hands. "Okay, fine. I enjoyed it. I really did. Like, it was a good date but I felt a little weird about texting you about it when I was texting Niall for today. But, yeah, I enjoyed it," he said, shrugging a little as he gave a small smile at Harry.

Niall fiddled with the cable from the earbuds, making a knot and untying it once more in order to try to ignore that heavy feeling inside him. He looked up as Liam sat beside him.

"Sorry for interrupting your date. So you’re Niall, then," he said.

"Right," he smiled, shrugging a little. "And it's alright, I guess. Could've been a lot worse interruption. And Zayn had been sleeping for a while before you arrived, so not much harm done, honestly.”

"You fell asleep in the middle of a date?" asked Liam.

"I chilled too hard, I think," chuckled Zayn, sitting down beside Niall and wrapping an arm around him. "Sorry, Niall."

"S'alright, you told me beforehand,” he shrugged.

Liam rolled his eyes, giving Zayn a fond smile. "I was going to make a bit of coffee because I want to study a bit later. Want me to make you a bit?"

They nodded. Harry pointed towards the general living space, muttering something about Liam having promised him some fruits before stepping out of the room.

"Again, I’m sorry I fell asleep and that our date was interrupted," said Zayn, running his hand by his arm and giving him a soft kiss on the forehead.

Niall nodded, sparing a glance to the open door and the way that the soft sounds of the conversation outside could still be heard. He smiled, sitting up higher and getting closer to him.

Might as well get something in return.

Niall barely had time to properly register Zayn’s lips on his when he opened his mouth, Zayn moving closer to him. Niall smiled, grabbing his shirt as he continued kissing him. Zayn groaned as he pulled him towards him as he laid down better, sighing out at the feeling of his weight on top of him. He smiled.

“You think this is funny?” Zayn muttered, one of his hands tightening his hold on his waist.

“No,” he said, laughing a little as Zayn kissed his jaw. “But it’s fun, though.”

“Fair enough,” he muttered, making Niall sigh out with another kiss.

It just had been so long since he’d had something like this, since someone kissed him down his jaw and pressed their body against his. He just wanted to enjoy this moment, just enjoy it without anything else clouding up his adrenaline’d and dopamine’d mind.

“Okay?” mumbled Zayn. He went up to peck up a kiss.

“Yeah,” he smiled, nodding a little before pulling him in for a much, much better snog. “You could’ve started with this, you know.”

“I didn’t want you to pick up the wrong impression,” he said. His hand moved up from his waist to his chest, feeling the skin beneath his jumper. Niall tried not to close his eyes, not to enjoy it too much for his own good. “Wouldn’t have wanted to give Liam a heart attack, either.”

Niall laughed, a hand flying up to cover his mouth. Zayn smiled, sitting up and straddling him better before holding his hand.

“I like your laugh,” he said, going down to kiss him once more.

“Um, thanks?” he said, figuring he should do something for once and kissing the space between two undecipherable tattoos in his chest he could see peeking out of his shirt. “I like your face.”

Zayn laughed out, tightening his hold on his hand.

“Zayn! Two twings. Liam’s asking where-”

Zayn and Niall sighed out, looking beside them to where Harry stood, both hands over his eyes and his voice decreasing from his soft scream. Zayn sighed out again, flopping beside Niall as Harry peeked through his fingers and Liam’s questioning voice sounded off from the distance.

“You know how they were watching Planet Earth? They were reenacting the animals in spring,” said Harry, turning around to talk to Liam.

“That’s gross,” muttered Niall. “I love that show, c’mon.”

“We were not reenacting Planet Earth,” said Zayn, shaking his head as he looked at Liam, who slid his way into their view. “What were you asking for, Li?”

“Oh, I know you have flour around here but for the life of me I can’t remember where it is? Harry wants to bake us some quick biscuits to have with our coffee and I am in no way going turn down that offer,” said Liam, in response to Zayn’s inquisitive stare.

“It’s in the cupboards beside the fridge, I think.”

“Oh.”

“Also,” said Harry, brushing a strand of hair away from his face. “Is it okay if I invite my friend Louis, you’ve all met him, I think? Though, fair enough, you didn’t meet him in his best of days. Liam says it’s okay. We were going to have coffee together after he got out of work, but now I’m baking so I can’t exactly go? And Liam’s offering me coffee, too. We’re both coffee buddies, Lou and I, you see.”

“I mean, we’re not stopping you from hanging out with your friend,” said Zayn, shrugging and raising his hands. His eyes widened at the glare that Liam sent off to him followed by a nudge from Niall. “What?”

“Be nice,” said Liam.

“But-”

“I really like this one,” said Harry, pointing at a smiling Liam. “Yeah, Zayn, be nice.”

Zayn looked at Niall, raising an eyebrow.

Niall shrugged. “I met him better the other day. I think you’d get along.”

Zayn sighed, throwing his hands in the air. “I mean, alright, since it’s three against one, I guess I have no other choice.”

“Yes! You’re all going love him, trust me,” said Harry, throwing his hands in the air before quickly reaching down for his phone in his pockets. “I’ll tell him to bring something when he’s on his way, though. I’m not going to use up all your food, Zayn. I’m not an animal. Well, I can be a party animal-”

“Harry,” sighed out Niall.

“Why do you say these types of things?” groaned Zayn.

“But I still have manners, don’t you worry,” he said, smiling and winking at him before leaving their sights to head for the kitchen.

“Sorry about that. I’ll try to control him,” sighed out Liam, glancing beside him to where Harry had headed before looking back at them. “Next time close your door, really though. I promise I’ll remember to knock and all if you do.”

He closed the door behind him, leaving Zayn and Niall to simply look at themselves.

“Well, Harry. He’s… something, isn’t he?”

“Yeah.” Niall sighed out, smiling a little. “I’ve grown a bit fond of him, though.”

“Just a bit, yeah,” said Zayn, scrunching up his nose a little and pecking his lips once more. “Should we go up and help him, then? Don't want my flat to be burned down.”

“He told me he used to work on a bakery once, I think,” said Niall, sitting up better on top of the bed. “Don’t think so, then.”

“Oh no, but Liam could,” smiled Zayn. “I don’t know how good he is, but he doesn’t know how to work around Liam’s absolute lack of general kitchen skills like I do, and that just calls for a mess.”

“What if he, like, just doesn’t help?”

Zayn laughed out loud from beside the bed. “You haven’t met him well enough yet to know that that’s simply not a possibility, Niall. Suggest it maybe, see what he says.”

And that he did, just some minutes later when Harry had just stopped him from measuring the curry instead of the cinnamon, curious to see what Zayn had exactly meant.

His eyes grew wide. He raised his hands, sputtering for a moment before scoffing at Niall.

“No, Niall, I have to help, okay? I can’t expect Harry to come into my household and not help him bake when he so graciously offered! I want to!”

“I think I’m good, actually,” said Harry, turning back just enough to send Liam an apologetic smile. “No offense, really. But I think you think it’s a hard recipe, when it’s really not. You should shower, you stink.”

“But-”

“Honestly, I’m good,” he said, nodding once more.

“But I want to help!”

“Li, babe, Harry says he’s fine,” said Zayn, waving a hand.

 

Someone knocked on the door in that exact moment, hurriedly and repeatedly in what seemed a weird rhythm, forcing the four of them to look towards it.

“That’s probably Louis,” said Harry, pointing to the door with his wooden spoon. “Do I-”

“I’ll do it, c’mon boy,” said Liam, standing up from the sofa and heading towards the door.

“That makes it sounds like he’s some type of dog,” pointed out Niall, scrunching up his nose at the song that was now playing around the flat.

“Oh, right, sorry,” he said.

Harry shrugged. “As long as it’s a cute one, I don’t really mind.”

Liam looked at Harry up and down, scrunching up his nose a bit. “I mean, I’ve seen cuter dogs.”

Niall laughed. He inched the laptop closer to him, noticing how Zayn was entranced by the scene happening at the front of the door. He heard the door open as he changed the song playing.

“Excuse you Liam, who made you judge of what dogs are cuter?”

“Oi, what’re you doing?” asked Zayn, wrapping his arms around him and pulling him towards him and away from the laptop. Niall bit back a laugh. “Who do you think you are, sneaking over to change the music?”

“Hi, m’Niall,” he said, looking over his shoulder to smile at him.

“Unbelievable. I invite you into my own home-”

“You brought crisps! Zayn, Louis brought crisps!” said Harry, standing over them and placing a bag on Niall’s lap.

“Thanks, stranger,” he said, raising his hand in greeting.

Niall took his hand, biting a little into it and smiling at Zayn’s cry. “That’s for being mean. Hey, Lou,” he said, looking up.

“Hi, Neil,” said Louis, standing over them with a slight frown. He shifted a bit in his stance, looking around the flat before setting his eyes on them once again. “Is this a date of some sort? Harold, did you invite yourself somewhere again?”

“Actually, I invited him,” said Liam, looking over from his shoulder as from the bathroom door. “I didn’t know they were on a date, though?”

“So you are on a date then,” he said, reaching down to pick up a book from the coffee table and flicking through it.

“I mean, we were just chilling,” shrugged Niall. He looked over at Zayn, who nodded.

“Yeah, and whatever, we’ll just continue it later or something,” added Zayn. He patted the place beside him on the sofa. “Just sit down, won’t you? You’re making me anxious.”

Louis sat down on the separate chair against the windows on the corner, keeping his legs folded beneath him and leaning his head against the wall.

“Anxious, huh” muttered Niall, looking around at Zayn and scrunching up his nose. Zayn only shrugged a bit.

“It’s not pretty when he gets anxious,” added Liam. “He barely eats and sleeps literally all the time and-”

“Okay, Liam, we get it, love,” interrupted Zayn, a small wrinkle appearing between his eyebrows. Niall tightened his hold over his hand.

Liam raised his hands, promptly closing the bathroom door.

“It’s completely normal to feel anxious from time to time,” said Harry, turning around with the wooden spoon in his hands. “If you’ve got a test or a date or stuff like that. Just. Breathe for a while and do it anyway, even if it’s bad. It’s when it’s stops you from doing stuff that it’s a problem. Or when it’s out of nowhere.”

Niall rolled his eyes, shifting a bit so he could take out his phone. Because, honestly.

“Are you sure you should be even doing stuff in the kitchen with your hair like that? I thought you always had to, like, tie it up,” added Zayn, changing the subject while he looked at Harry.

“I mean, it’s not a professional setting and I didn’t know you minded?”

“I don’t, it’s just…” Zayn shrugged.

“Oh, that’s good then. It’s just that when I worked in a bakery, they told me it couldn’t be very long, my hair. Now I’m not working there anymore, or anywhere really, so I’m letting my hair grow until I have straight A’s in a semester.”

Niall turned to look to the other side, scrunching up his eyes at the weird lighting coming out from the window at this angle, but transfixed by the intensity of Louis’ laugh from where he sat. His hand covered his mouth, almost as if he’d surprised himself with his laugh.

It was a beautiful laugh and it hurt his soul that he hadn’t gotten to hear it until now, it was just that, well, “I don’t get it.”

Louis took a deep breath before releasing another string of laughter. “It’s just that- Oh God. Oh, boy! That hair’s going to go a long time without a trim!”

Niall laughed, feeling the Zayn’s chest tremble as well.

“Excuse me, Louis,” said Harry, frowning and placing his hands on his hips, “but it’d be nice to have a little support, especially from you. And from you two, too!”

“No, I do support you!” said Niall.

“Sure,” he said, pulling a face and nodding before turning around.

Niall smiled, looking at Louis, with his green scrubs and hair pulled back by a headband and his eyes slowly falling shut. Louis blinked suddenly, eyes wide as he looked around the flat until meeting Niall’s gaze. They smiled.

“How are you doing?” asked Niall.

Louis smiled softly, taking his hand to his hair and removing the headband. “Tired after some hours at the hospital. Didn’t do much today, actually, just some shadowing, but it’s still so exhausting.”

“Shadowing can be quite exhausting,” said Zayn, looking away from the scene in the kitchen. “I shadow at schools and I always take a nap when I come home until it’s time to study.”

Louis smiled softly. “Mine’s at a neonatal hall this month. And it’s so great, amazing, but honestly, it’s so exhausting. And, same, I always either nap or get some coffee. ‘Cause like, right now? I could sleep for ages if you let me.”

“You’re free to nap here,” said Zayn, his hand rubbing Niall’s arm. “Don’t know when the coffee’s going to be prepared, but you could take a cat nap in the meantime.”

“Cat nap,” Louis muttered, chuckling a little. He crossed his arms and leaned back against the armchair. “Gonna do that then. Just the motivation I needed.”

“Pleasure.”

“And Niall?” added Louis, opening an eye. “I truly am doing better. Thank you.”

Niall smiled, making a thumbs up sign. Louis closed his eyes, leaning his head against the wall once more.

Liam sat down beside them some moments later, freshly clothed and everything, glancing at Louis and then looking back at the two for them. “Is he asleep already? Damn. Does everyone here have that talent? Falling asleep whenever and wherever,” he added in a low voice in response to Niall’s raised eyebrow. “I think I maybe should’ve made the coffee a bit earlier then?”

“Let him,” said Harry from where he stood. He dried his hands with his jeans, taking his phone to take a photo of Louis before walking towards the kitchen again. “I’m making a photo album of him napping in different places as his birthday present, but don’t tell him.”

“You do know that he might not be completely asleep yet?” asked Niall.

“Nah, if he wasn’t, he would’ve woken up as soon as Liam started talking about coffee earlier. Because coffee,” replied Harry, grimacing when the mixing bowl fell loudly into the sink. Louis remained still. “See?”

Niall nudged Zayn on the stomach. “Don’t get any ideas on falling asleep, mate.”

Zayn smiled, kissing his cheek. “Think you’re funny, aren’t you, mate?”

“You fell asleep on me while watching Planet Earth.”

“It’s a very relaxing show.”

Niall rolled his eyes, looking at Liam. He was typing something away on his phone, maybe his girlfriend, if he remembered him properly from that night a week and a half ago.

“Liam, c’mon, time for coffee,” said Harry, doing a little twisty dance as Liam stood up. 

 

Niall smiled as he received a warm cup of coffee not much later. He took a sugar biscuit, smiling up at Harry.

“I’m going to wake him up,” said Liam, looking at the still sleeping Louis. “It’s been twenty minutes already.”

Liam looked at Harry, who pulled a face and shrugged. “Can’t guarantee he’ll be lovely until you give him that coffee, but if you want to be the one to do it, go on then.”

Niall smiled as Liam gently shook him awake with one hand, a cup of coffee in the other. Louis opened an eye. He ran a hand through his hair, blinking multiple times before glaring at Liam.

“I’ve got some coffee for you,” said Liam, moving the cup forward.

He blinked again, taking the cup from Liam’s hands. Louis looked at Liam for a second, reaching out and twisting his nipple.

Liam let out a small cry, pushing his hand away. “What the fuck?”

Louis smiled a little, leaning against the chair and taking a sip from his coffee. He shrugged, “Thanks for the coffee.”

Harry laughed, quickly covering his mouth with a hand and looking at Liam with big eyes.

“Sorry.”

Niall laughed at the scene in front of him. He took another sip from his coffee as a conversation started between the others, Louis and Harry were telling a ridiculous story of how they met when they were children, Liam’s laughter interjecting them from time to time. Niall sighed, smiling and resting his head against Zayn’s shoulder.

For the moment, he couldn’t help but feeling that this was more than enough.

Later at night, after everything was cleaned up and both Harry and Louis had left, Zayn led him out the building with a hand on his lower back. He stopped by the door, embracing him once more.

“Hey,” said Zayn, his hand running by Niall’s side. “Sorry our date was interrupted.”

He smiled. “S’alright. I had fun.”

“No, I want to make it up to you, like,” he said, sighing a little. “Can it be just the two of us next time? Like, for real.”

He smiled, taking a hand to his cheek to redirect him for a proper snog. He didn’t know how Zayn had already understood that he loved it when he grabbed his waist a bit too tight or how he liked to take control over him. Maybe now he could understand that he fucking hated the way he teased him when he broke their kiss every so often to nuzzle his face.

“Go out with me this week,” Zayn said, pressing a kiss on his jaw. His hands ran by his sides of once more.

Niall closed his eyes, hiding his face against his neck. “I’ll have to check.”

“C’mon, babe, we don’t have to do much. Just a few hours at least?”

Niall leaned away, frowning a little at Zayn, as much as he could when he gave him that pout.  “I’ve got some heavy weeks ahead of me. Some papers and a report to give that are worth too much to lay off.”

“Come to my flat then to study,” he smiled.

He huffed out a laugh. “Won’t take no for an answer, won’t you?”

He shrugged. “I’m trying to be a bit more assertive in my life. Like, figuring out what I want and speaking my mind and all those things I used to think were bullshit. If you really don’t want to see me again or something, that’s fine. I’ll deal. But I want to.”

Niall looked out to the dark street through the door beside them and back at Zayn. And, damn it, he had that shy smile again, and his running hands on his waist did nothing at all to help.

“I’ll check my planner and text you,” he said, a small smile working its way to his lips.

“Your planner?” he said, raising his eyebrows and smirking.

“Mock my planner and you won’t get that date,” he warned, leaning a bit away from him.

“Fair enough.”

He kissed him, opening his mouth and pressing his hips until Zayn was making these soft little sounds from the back of his throat. Niall smiled, removing his hands from his hips. He pushed himself away.

“See you,” he said, looking back as he opened the door. He laughed out a little at the sight of him, hair ruffled up just enough and his eyes wide as they stared off at him.

That would teach him, he thought, as he headed out into the street with a smile.

 

The following week was filled by much, much studying, because of course he had to choose to willingly take a class by the toughest professor in the entire faculty. Of course. But he studied in coffeeshops sometimes with Harry or sometimes on his bed, Zayn writing essays or class plans beside him.

Even so, he wasn’t busy enough to ignore the heavy feeling inside him when he saw their snapchats with Louis or Liam, smiling and laughing and doing things with each other while he studied away. And he definitely couldn’t ignore Zayn’s snapstory from yet another open mic, wearing horn-rimmed glasses and Harry always making faces beside him.

He sighed. He wasn’t going to feel sorry for himself and not do anything about it. He’d never done that with anything, and he wasn’t going to start doing that now.

Which was how he found himself on a Wednesday night sitting on dark pub table between Harry and Zayn, hiding his smile from Louis and Liam’s rants.

“We’ve got five minds and no one here knows this answer?!”

Louis raised his hands, looking around the table in dismay. Liam and Harry looked at each other as they sang under their breath going off with their “breathe with Oxygen and brush your teeth with Fluoride and…”

“That’s as far as I go,” said Liam, eyes wide as he looked at them.

“Neon,” smiled Niall, placing his glass over the table. “Neon’s next.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think neon’s it, though,” sighed Liam.

Niall smiled, running his hand through the condensation around the glass. He looked around the pub, everyone in their tables with their trivia teams and talking as animatedly as they were, the answer sheet on someone’s hand. He noticed there were only a few little tables sat down talking normally, so at least barely anyone knew the answer. Or maybe they’d just given up.

He loved this. He closed his eyes just for a second, hearing the unintelligible murmurs of all the conversations around him, feeling Zayn’s steady hand on his leg. Harry laughed loudly at something Liam had muttered. He looked at him smiling a little.

“I can’t believe that we have five minds here and no one knows this answer,” repeated Louis. He sighed, rolling his eyes and finishing off his beer. “Fucking unbelievable you are.”

“Um, you’re the one who’s had to take the most science classes here, I think?” said Zayn, resting his arms over the table as he leaned over it. “I’m right about that, aren’t I? Louis, our favorite nursing student…”

“I-”

“Why don’t you answer it?” he smirked.

“Yeah, Lewis, why don’t you answer it then?” laughed Niall.

Louis glared, his jaw set as he took a deep breath.

“Why don’t we all just relax a little,” said Harry slowly, placing his hands over the table. “It’s just a game. We don’t have to win.”

“All games are meant to be won,” said Liam, glaring at him.

“I mean, I know the elements alright? Had to learn them all,” shrugged Louis, sticking out his tongue in Zayn’s direction. “But that doesn’t mean I know which element led to the expression mad as a hatter. I think that’s more of a question for the education folks here,” giving a pointed look at Zayn and Liam.

“I’m not studying to become an English teacher, though,” said Liam, raising his hands in mock-innocence and pointing at Zayn.

“We are all multifaceted people,” said Niall, smiling at Zayn over the rim of his glass before he struck back at Louis. “We all know lots of things about lots of things. We don’t have to know everything and there’s nothing wrong with not having answered one trivia question. Just drink your beers and chill, mates.”

Louis took another deep breath.

Liam rolled his eyes as he read the paper in his hands, “That’d be alright if we’d managed to answer all the other questions, Niall, but we’ve only managed to definitely answer two correctly.”

“That’s not that bad,” said Harry.

“Out of nine!”

“Alright, we’re pretty bad at this game,” admitted Niall.

“I’ll drink to that,” said Zayn with a chuckle, raising his glass as the bell rang out throughout the pub.

The five of them looked over to read the new question on the projection on the wall. Niall frowned, sipping down the last of his beer as he read the question.

“We all know the US doesn’t use the metric system,” he said, looking down at Liam’s upside-down handwriting as he wrote it down. “So what are the other two countries?”

Niall looked around the table. Zayn looked around to the other tables, thankfully as stumped as they were. Liam frowned, his lips articulating something he couldn’t hear. Harry was too transfixed on finishing his glass of beer, while Louis looked at something below the table.

“Louis, are you googling the answer?”

Louis looked up, his wide eyes looking around the table. He blinked. “No? I’m texting my sister.”

“Which one?” asked Harry, raising his chin with a smile.

“Lottie.”

“Oh, pass me your phone. I want to ask her something,” he said, smiling a little and reaching out for the phone. Louis moved it away in time.

“If you aren’t cheating, you won’t have any problem handing over your phone,” mused Liam, smiling as he took a sip of his glass.

Louis glared at him and glaced at the others, sighing a little before handing over his phone.

Harry unlocked it, rolling his eyes before looking up. “Well, Liberia just popped into my mind for the weirdest of reasons.”

“Louis!”

“We said we wouldn’t cheat!”

“Alright, but what’s the third one, though?” asked Zayn, taking his hand out to grab the phone.

Harry moved the phone away, “No way, we’re not going to cheat anymore. And I really did want to talk with Lottie for a while, so don’t be rude."

"Use your own phone," suggested Louis.

“That’s if he could even google shit out of his brand new phone,” laughed Liam, throwing his head back before looking around the table with a wider smile. “Haven’t they seen your phone?”

Zayn smiled, leaning back on his chair as he took it out. “I don’t think they have, no.”

“Wait, Harry, what are you doing?” asked Niall, looking out how Harry had untied his hair and was now fixing it while looking at the phone’s screen.

“Taking a selfie so Lottie can see how long my hair’s gotten,” he shrugged, seeming to be finally happy with his hair and snapping the picture. “What are you doing, huh?”

“Holy shit!”

The two looked over at Louis’ exclamation and laughter. Niall’s eyes narrowed down on the small brick-like object one the table and-

“Jesus fucking Christ, is that a fucking Nokia?”

Zayn smiled, shrugging a little at their stares. “I tend to just, like, drop things when I’m exhausted. Like, one minute things are in my hands and as soon as I pay attention somewhere else, plop, they’re on the floor. My last phone broke and I can’t really afford fix it, but that’s not gonna happen with this one.”

The bell rang around the pub as Niall hid his face on his shoulder as he laughed.

“Liam, write down Liberia,” said Louis, looking over at the sheet in his hands.

Liam shook his head, frowning a little. “I’m not gonna write down an answer you cheated to get. It’s a matter of ethics.”

“It’s a pub trivia game. What ethics?!”

“In 2011,” Harry said loudly, reading the projection out loud, “NASA launched a car named Curiosity to-”

“Mars!” said Niall in a carrying whisper, leaning over the table towards Liam. “I know this one and it’s Mars!”

“See?” said Liam, writing down the answer on the paper before glaring at Louis. “No cheating required. 'Cause he's smart.”

Louis rolled his eyes, seemingly unable to stop a smile. He reached out, flicking Liam’s nipple and making him cry out before pushing him away.

Harry stood up from his chair, tying his hair as he looked at them. “Right, shall I buy us another pitcher before the other teams get to the bar during the break? On me.”

“I have absolutely nothing to do tomorrow for the first time in forever, so absolutely yes,” said Louis, nodding at him with a smile.

Niall rolled his eyes. “I do have stuff to do tomorrow, but sure.”

Zayn stood up, taking the empty pitcher. “I’ll go with you. Stretch me legs a little.”

Niall smiled as he watched Zayn stand near Harry, a hand on his waist as Harry called down the bartender. He turned to Liam.

“Zayn says he doesn’t and makes fun of him and everything, but he really does like him a lot, doesn't he?” Niall smiled, scrunching up his nose.

“He better,” said Louis, turning around to look at the scene behind him.

Liam rolled his eyes, finishing his beer. “He’s like that, yeah. I don’t think Harry makes it any harder for him not to make fun of him, though.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” glared Louis as he turned around to face them again.

“God, nothing,” said Liam with a loud exhale. “Just that Zayn loves taking the mickey out of his friends and I don’t think Harry minds it at all. I mean, he’s got you as a best friend, hasn’t he?”

“He does,” smiled Louis, resting his head on his hand. “Got me as a best friend, I mean, and making fun of him is one of my favorite hobbies.”

Liam reached out, pinching his nipple. Louis cried out, pushing himself away. “No need to get all defensive.”

“I’m the only one who gets to make fun of him,” said Louis, glaring at Liam. “Well, and Gemma, his sister. And Zayn too now, I guess. And Niall if you want to too.”

“I’m alright,” said Niall, shrugging a little. “Thanks for the permission, though. Wouldn’t want you to get cross at me for violating your rights and overstepping.”

Louis rolled his eyes, shaking his head a little as Liam laughed. “You think you’re cheeky.”

“Doesn’t it bother you, even just a bit, though?” said Liam, glancing over to where Harry and Zayn stood very closely at the bar. Zayn whispered something in his ear, making Harry cover his mouth in laughter. “Them being together and you being separately together too? Or something like that? That phrasing’s a bit confusing, but you know what I mean.”

“I mean,” said Niall, shrugging a little again. He smiled as Harry kissed Zayn, forcing himself to not feeling anything else than happiness. Because Harry seemed happy and Zayn too, even with him, and that should be enough, he thought, nodding a little. “Like, I’ll admit that it was a bit weird at first. But I think it’d be a bit unfair for me to mad with them spending time together if we’re doing the same thing with the other? I’m cool with it by now, though. Gotten used to it,” he added, a little laugh escaping his lips.

Louis scrunched up his nose, smiling a little. “That’s lovely.”

“Yeah, it’s quite nice that you've found each other,” said Liam with a sigh. “Love’s such a beautiful thing.”

“Love?”

“Woah, woah,” said Niall, raising his hands as he looked at a wide-eyed Liam. “I met them less than a month ago. It’s cool that you think that, but it’s not love.”

“Well, maybe it isn’t right now, but it could develop into love if you give it time,” he frowned.

“Oh my God, this is so cute,” said Louis, pulling a face.

“I need a drink,” said Niall, raising himself to see that Zayn and Harry still hadn’t gotten their pitcher. “Well, I’m going to the loo in the meantime since they’re not gonna return anytime soon. Useless.”

Louis laughed, nodding at him.

“Well, I’m going to text my _girlfriend_ ,” said Liam with a pout. He glared at the two of them as they laughed. “Because I _love_ her.”

Niall laughed, standing up and looking around for the bathroom sign.

Niall was washing his hands when the bathroom door opened, revealing a familiar face.

“Hey,” he said, going up to the paper dispenser to dry his hands.

“Hey yourself,” said Louis, standing beside him and crossing his eyes. Niall laughed, throwing the paper towel into the bin. “So.”

“So?” said Niall, raising an eyebrow.

“You looked very adorable when you answered that NASA question,” said Louis, cocking his head and smiling at Niall.

“Adorable?” And, he, ugh, he could feel his cheeks reddening and he hated this about himself, knowing very well that pretty much his upper body would redden with the compliment. “Um, thanks?” he said, laughing a little.

Louis smiled wider, stepping closer to him. “Like, the most, yeah?”

Niall blinked. He involuntarily laughed again, stepping back and hitting his back with the paper dispenser. He stepped beside it, looking at Louis. “Alright?”

Louis stepped forward again and that did nothing to stop another small giggle from escaping from Niall’s lips as he stared at the space between them.

“Alright,” said Louis. He pushed himself on his tiptoes for a second, raising his eyebrows as he looked at Niall. “In the spirit of full disclosure, then, can I kiss you?”

Niall’s eyes practically popped out, a shaky laugh escaping his lips. He pushed himself against the wall, wrapping his arms around himself. “What?”

“A kiss, Niall,” said Louis, rolling his eyes. “You put your lips with someone else’s-”

“I know what a kiss is!” he said, frowning and unsure on how to breathe due to the space between them. Louis frowned a little, settling himself back at his normal height. “I just… Don’t understand why you’d want that? I don’t think we should either way.”

He slowly stepped back.

“Well, why should I have a reason? I want to kiss you,” he shrugged. “Why can’t we, though? Harry snogs you and I sometimes snog him. I know you have no problem with sharing and neither does he. He said you weren’t exclusive or some shit like that. With that math, why can’t I snog you too? It's like a triangle.”

Niall took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he gently pushed Louis away. “That’s not how it works, Lou.”

“Why not?” he frowned, a bit of a pout on his lips.

“’Cause,” said Niall with a shrug. “I- That’s just not how it works, Louis,” Niall repeated, looking into the mirror and fixing a bit of his button-up that had been stuck on his jeans this whole time.

“But I… I thought you were flirting a little bit with me too?”

Niall looked at Louis’ reflection on the mirror and- Shit. Niall sighed, running a hand through his hair and closing his eyes for one two three seconds hoping Louis’ expression would improve in the meantime.

It didn’t.

“I- Um, so sorry, but no,” he said, placing his hands on the countertops and focusing on tracing the wooden design with his fingers. “I’m a bit like that with everyone, so sorry. I- A lot of people think that. It’s not you. But I’m sorry.”

“I-”

The door opened, some other bloke walking to the farthest urinal from them. Niall looked up at Louis’ reflection, seeing how it gave him a smile.

“No need to apologize then, just a slight misunderstanding. Sorry about that,” he smiled.

He took a deep breath. “Louis.”

“I actually also needed to use the loo, so I’m just gonna-”

Niall nodded, pushing himself away from the counter. “Right, I’ll see you at the table then.”

He took a deep breath, waiting for a few seconds outside before walking back to the table, smiling at the three faces looking up at him.

“Oi, you made it out of that bar alive! And with beer!” he said, raising his arms and hugging Harry.

Harry laughed. “And you made it out of the bathroom alive!”

Niall examined him and his smile. He tried to maintain his own smile as that heavy feeling overcame him again, because- One, Louis said that the two of them present-tense snog sometimes, instead of the when-we-were-young past-tense he might’ve been okay with. And two, Louis, Harry’s long-time best friend that was in love with him, had tried to kiss him and had been rejected because of it.

He didn’t want to think about that anymore.

He breathed in, kissing his cheek quickly before pulling himself away. He smiled, fixing his shirt. “What? You thought that- Ugh, what was that ghost’s name in Harry Potter in the girl’s bathroom?”

“Moaning Myrtle,” said Liam without looking up from his phone.

“Right, it’s not like she was going to attack me or something,” he said, rolling his eyes. He stepped towards Zayn, instantly feeling his arm wrap his waist.

“She doesn’t attack people in the bathroom,” said Liam, looking up from his phone with slightly furrowed eyebrows. “She got attacked in the bathroom.”

Niall shrugged, placing his hand over Zayn’s. “Same shit. Gimme some of that beer, though.”

“No, it’s not the same shit-”

“Liam, babe, I agree with you in that it’s not the same shit, but the game starts up soon so right now’s not the best moment to argue about Harry Potter details,” said Zayn, taking a glass and serving Niall from the pitcher.

“It’s always a good time to argue about Harry Potter,” said Liam with a roll of his eyes before returning to his phone.

“I’ll warn you, though,” Zayn told Niall, pulling him closer to him by the waist as he drank from his cup. “This one ended up buying us some smoked ale or summat and it has this weird salmon aftertaste.”

“It’s good, though,” said Harry.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t,” shrugged Zayn. “Just said it was a bit weird.”

Niall raised his eyebrows as the two of them stared at him. He shrugged. “I mean, I wouldn’t say I think of salmon when I drink beer, but it’s not bad? It’s new.”

Harry smiled.

Niall didn’t smile back, instead placing his glass on the table and turning around to kiss Zayn. He could feel his smile as he swept his lip slightly with his tongue, receiving the same bitter taste of beer. Zayn groaned as he stepped between his legs, lowered his hand from his waist.

Maybe it was the beer he’d already had, but Niall couldn’t bring himself to care right at this moment if his actions were a little mean. The world was a little mean. If Harry had a problem with it, he could grow up and get over it.

He ignored the bell ringing around the pub, instead focusing on the low moan that came out from Zayn.

“C’mon, the next question’s coming soon and it’s music,” he heard Liam’s voice call out.

Niall smiled, pressing closer to Zayn and sucking on his tongue as he threw his arms over his shoulders. He smiled as he moaned again, louder this time. Zayn's hand tightened its hold on his arse.

“That’s enough now,” he heard Harry’s voice call out, his hand soon pulling Niall away from Zayn. He blinked, seeing Zayn doing the same with a slow laugh on his lips. In the back of his mind, he wondered whether Zayn kissed Harry like that too. “You two are going to get us thrown out if you keep on like that and lose us our chance of winning.”

He shouldn’t think like that, he told himself, closing his eyes a little. He willed his body and mind to calm the fuck down.

“I mean, we’re going to lose anyway,” said Zayn, pulling Niall closer by his belt loops and making him let out a soft cry.

“Yeah, like, why not have fun in the meantime then?” smiled Niall, laughing a little.

Zayn smiled at him, kissing his jaw much to Harry’s complaints. Niall was going to kiss him again when a sudden movement caught his attention. He leaned against Zayn, letting him kiss his neck as his hands ran by his back.

He closed his eyes.

“So,” said Louis, scraping the chair as he sat up on it. “The bell’s rung and the game’s back on. What have I missed?”

“The beer tastes like salmon and these two were eating each other’s faces,” said Liam.

A beat of silence was followed by Louis’ voice. “Well then. Have they at least put up the next question?”

“Do you have to visit your school tomorrow morning?” asked Niall, his hand going up to caress Zayn’s face. Zayn shook his head. “Stay over at mine, then?” he said softly, pressing a kiss on his lips. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. “I want you to properly stay over this time. No leaving at two am again.”

Niall smiled widely, feeling his body loosen up at the sight of Zayn’s own smile.

Zayn poked his waist, kissing his cheek and that area near his ear before murmuring an “Of course, babe. Of course.”

Niall kissed him again, softly this time and flipping Harry the bird as he complained once more.

If Niall pulled his chair so he sat closer to Zayn this time, making it easier to run a hand lazily by his thigh later on, then it was totally not on purpose. And the deep frown on Harry’s face was definitely the effect of reading the question that was being projected on the other side of the pub. Maybe he should get glasses, to see if he stopped frowning like that.

“’Annie are you okay?’”

“Oh!” said Zayn, his face lighting up as he looked at Liam. “MJ’s Smooth Criminal! Man, what a song.”

“We’re so going to smash this section,” said Liam, smiling and shaking his head. “Like, I know every section’s only got three questions, but we’re so going to answer all of these questions correctly.”

“I mean, it’s not like these other ones are going to be much help,” said Zayn, smiling at Liam. “They listen to all that old rock songs and bands that no one’s heard about.”

“Hey!”

“Oi!”

Zayn kissed him quickly, successfully removing the frown from his face and avoiding his complaints.

“Don’t you think that bands that supposedly no one have heard about are the best choice for a trivia night?” said Harry, glaring at him.

“Not if whoever makes these questions doesn’t know about them,” pointed out Zayn, drinking from his glass.

“It’s whomever.”

“Oh my God,” exclaimed Zayn, throwing his head back as he chuckled. Harry raised his eyebrows, making Zayn raise his hands. “Literally no one our age naturally says whomever because it’s an old rule that’s only enforced through grammar books in an attempt to ‘keep our language pure.’”

“Doesn’t mean that it’s not right, though.”

“So, what music do you two listen to?” said Niall, looking in front of him to Liam and Louis.

“Lots of hip hop and rnb,” said Liam, shrugging a little.

“Me? Oh, punk rock from my teens and Top 40 and EDM and a bit of some youtube covers,” said Louis, pointedly drinking significantly from his glass as Niall watched on.

“Whatever! Alright, whatever! The point is,” said Zayn, placing his hands over the table. “We’re going to smash it, and okay, I was teasing you guys with that comment.”

The bell rang out the pub, stopping Harry from saying whatever it was he was going to say.

“What’s the name of Taylor-” His face lit up as he silently read the rest of the question. “I know this one! The album’s epinominous. No, epninimious. No, ugh.”

Louis laughed loudly as Harry covered his face. “Excuse him, he’s always had a bit of a crush on her.”

“Eponimious?”

Niall joined in on the laughter, taking away the half-empty beer glass from Harry. “I think you’ve had enough.”

“Eponymous,” laughed Zayn. “He means eponymous, Liam.”

Liam blinked, eyes wide. He shook his head, “I have no idea how to write that or what it means.”

Niall laughed loudly, leaning over the table. “Sorry. It’s just-” He laughed again. “Your face, Liam.”

“It means it’s the same as her name,” smiled Harry, kissing Liam on the forehead.

“Well, why couldn’t you just have said that instead?!” he exclaimed, pushing him away and raising his hands. “It’s much easier than trying to say whatever that word was supposed to be!”

Niall laughed again, covering his face with his hands. It wasn’t enough to fully ignore the heavy, uncomfortable feeling on his stomach, but it was enough for the moment. It was enough.

 

“Hey, you!”

Niall looked up from his phone, squinting a little due to the light. He smiled at the familiar face and friendly eyes he was met with.

“Hey to you too.”

Niall took in his tight running joggers and t-shirt, but Liam looked absolutely normal and not as winded up as Niall was whenever he decided going for a run was a good idea.

“You waiting on Zayn?” asked Liam, taking his keys out of his book bag. Ah, so he'd come from a class, then.

“Yeah,” sighed out Niall. “He told me to come over at five, but he hasn’t picked up his phone since I got here.”

“Oh, no. I’m so sorry!” He sighed, shaking his head. “That boy’s a mess, I swear.”

“I’ve only been here like five minutes, though,” he shrugged, only slightly being generous. “Maybe ten. He probably hasn’t gotten the call, though, with that Nokia of his.”

Liam laughed, scrunching up his eyes as he helped Niall stand up. “C’mon, then, might as well wait for him inside where it’s warmer, right? I’m going to shower and then make some tea, but you can come in and all.”

Niall frowned at him. “Are you sure you’re allowed to boil water? ‘Cause I can do that.”

Liam threw him a glare over his shoulder. “I invite you into my own home and this is how you thank me. Yes, Horan, I know how to put on a kettle safely.”

“Just checking.”

“Don’t listen to everything Zayn tells you,” he said, rolling his eyes as he pushed the front door forcibly. “That sounds wrong. He’s just too protective, honestly. You’ll learn that if you haven’t yet when you two become more serious.”

“Protective. Got it,” said Niall, making a thumbs up and throwing his bag to the sofa as he joined Liam in the kitchen. “I mean, it’s not like we’re doing anything serious or it’s gonna become it.”

Liam shrugged a little, turning to Niall. “Whatever. D’you actually want to do the tea?”

He nodded, “I know where everything is, don’t worry. Go shower. You stink.”

“Wow,” said Liam with a scoff. “I invite you into my _home_.”

Niall rolled his eyes, smiling and pushing him away. Liam’s laughter followed him to his room.

He navigated through the kitchen well enough, only being a little bit confused on where they kept their tea. He knew it was on the cupboards beside the fridge, but he didn’t know which one, although thankfully there weren’t that many options.

He made himself tea, thankfully hearing the water turn off in the distance when it was time to make the second cup.

“Liam! Tea?!”

The door to the bathroom opened in the distance. “Milk and three sugars!”

Niall raised his eyebrows, but following the instructions nevertheless.

“Hope you’re decent,” said Niall, walking into the room with the two mugs in hand. Thankfully Liam was already in his boxers, so Niall just placed his cup on his desk.

Liam’s room was completely organized in comparison with Zayn’s just a few feet away. Niall flicked the _7 Habits for Effective People_ beside the cup. He didn’t know why he was surprised that it was highlighted and annotated on the inside.

“Sit wherever you want, I’m just going on a date in a while and I’ve got to get ready for it,” said Liam from where he stood by the wardrobe. “I can wait until Zayn gets here, though. Wouldn’t want to leave you here all alone.”

Niall placed the book where it’d been, right above some other book titled _Emotional Agility_ , and sat down on the bed on the other side of the wall. He looked to the side, looking at all the pictures on the wall, only recognizing Zayn on two of the pictures, but managing to infer who were his family and his girlfriend and friends nevertheless.

“You’ve got to help me a bit, if you can,” said Liam, taking a few clothing items out of the wardrobe. “It’s at some restaurant and it’s not horribly nice, but it’s still quite nice and I’m a failure when it comes to dressing properly.”

“At least you admit it,” pointed out Niall. “And it’s Monday, what you doing going out to fancy places?”

“Start off our week well with a date,” shrugged Liam, scrunching up his face as he examined a shirt. “You and Zayn are doing the same thing, just staying in instead of going out. How this, for example?”

He held up an orange and grey shirt. Niall scrunched up his nose. “Zayn and I won’t be on a date once he gets here, first of all. Second of all, regardless of what the show says, orange is not the new black.”

Liam rolled his eyes. “Right, you’ll be ‘hanging out.’ And I knew that, about the orange. That was a test.”

“Right,” said Niall, unlocking his phone and seeing a message from Zayn.

Speak of the devil.

“To see how good you were, fashionwise,” continued Liam.

“Right,” he repeated, typing away an _alright im with liam anyway._

“I bought this shirt for a theater piece I had to do for Child Dev,” continued Liam, still holding it in his hands.

“If that’s so, then I guess you wouldn’t have any problem throwing it out ‘cause it’s horrible,” smiled Niall, throwing his phone on the bed and standing up.

He took the shirt from Liam’s hands and set it apart. He started to sort through the pile of clothes he’d placed a chair.

“Let’s see what we can do between the two of us,” he said. “But orange’s not nice, ‘cause it doesn’t match or rhyme with basically anything.”

Not much long after, after they’d managed to retrieve a nice-looking pair of jeans and a better button-up shirt, Niall looked on from the bed as Liam worked something through sections of his hair.

“Why haven’t I met her anyway?”

Liam looked at him through the mirror’s reflection. “Well, you’re always with Zayn when you’re with me.”

He frowned. “So?”

He sighed, setting down a pot of hair gel. “Dunno why, if you and Zayn aren’t serious or anything,” he shrugged.

He felt his frown deepen. “‘Cause the two of us are friends. Duh.”

“Oh,” said Liam, blinking a little as he looked at Niall through the mirror. “Well, I’m sure we could arrange something eventually, then.”

Niall scrunched up his nose as sat up a little, finishing his tea. “Isn’t one of the habits in that book to be proactive about things in your life? Do all the things you can do today, not leave them for tomorrow?”

“What- Oh,” said Liam, taking a deep breath before turning around. “I’ve changed my mind. You’re not as nice as I thought you were.”

Niall laughed, looking at Liam’s smiling reflection and how his hands went up once again to fix another section of his hair.

He smiled at Liam started telling the story of how he and Zayn had met on their first semester when they’d been put on a group with a "horribly irresponsible student. lazy, lazy. I hope he shaped up after that experience," and were left off to do the job themselves. They kept running into each other randomly and after that they were best friends ever since.

“Honey, I’m home!” said a too-familiar voice, interrupting another story.

“Haz…”

Zayn’s head peeked through the opening on the door, knocking on it briefly before staring at Liam and Niall.

“Hey, you two,” he said, placing a kiss on Niall’s cheek and sitting down beside him. “Sorry I got home late. I found these two at Asda and they followed me here,” said Zayn, pointing to where Harry and Louis were peeking inside the room.

Louis stepped inside the room, glaring at Zayn. “That makes it sound like we’re a pair of strays. I don’t approve of this message.”

“As long as I’m a cute dog,” said Harry, shrugging and plopping down on Niall’s other side. He pressed a kiss on his cheek before glancing at Liam. “Looking good.”

Liam sighed, brushing his hands against his legs as he looked at himself in the mirror. “Thanks. Date night, you see.”

Niall closed his eyes as Zayn’s hand ran up and down his side, listening to the conversation between the others as he sighed out and curled up better around Zayn.

“Why didn’t you wear this shirt? S’nice.”

Niall opened his eyes to see Harry examining the infamous orange shirt. Niall met Liam’s eyes, trying to contain his laughter as he tried to retrieve it from his hands.

Zayn pressed his lips to Niall’s shoulders, distracting him enough from the scene in front of him.

“No, I don’t care if you’re going to eat, you need to have something on your lips, okay?” said Louis’ voice, a bit on sharp. “It’s just some lip balm to make them soft as fuck.”

“But-”

“Think of it this way,” he continued. “You’re giving her something to lick off at the end of the night.”

Niall took a deep breath, taking his hand to Zayn’s hair as he hid his face against his shoulder as Harry muttered a "gross."

“I mean,” said Liam, “if she’s gonna lick something off me, it’s not going to be some lip balm ‘cause it’ll just fade away after dinner.”

Louis laughed on the other side of the room as Zayn groaned, gently moving away from him as he stood up from the bed. “I’m going to take this as my cue to start working on the kitchen. Should I include you two?”

“Nah, we just wanted to say hi,” shrugged Harry, tapping away something in his phone. “We don’t mean to intrude.”

“I’m offering, though,” he said, throwing Niall a look.

Louis looked at Harry, eyebrows quirked as he shrugged again. “No, it’s okay. Don’t worry about me and Lou.”

Niall shrugged, standing up and taking Zayn by the arm. “I’ll go help you.”

He felt Harry’s gaze on him, so he turned to look at him questioningly.

“It’s fine,” said Harry, adding another shrug. “Last time I was here I interrupted another date of yours, so I don’t want to make a habit out of it, like. We’ll get out of your hair once Louis’ done with Liam. We just wanted to say hi to you three.”

Niall sighed, nodding a little. “Alright then.”

Niall leaned against the countertops, watching as Zayn started taking out pans out of cupboards and food out of the fridge. He raised an eyebrow when he noticed his gaze on him.

“You said you found Harry and Louis at Asda?” he asked, biting his lip a little.

“Yeah, like,” he said, closing the fridge door behind him. “I was examining their finest wine when all of the sudden I’m being hugged by the two of them. S’alright that they’re here, right?”

He crossed his arms, looking at Liam’s open door at the other end of the flat.He shrugged a little. “Yeah, f’course it is, I just… It’s a bit weird that they’d come up here just to say hi, I think? And not eat with us or anything, I mean.”

Zayn huffed out an exhale, heading over to him and wrapping his arms around him.

“Listen,” he said, looking into his eyes and running a hand by his shoulder. “I’m not really sure if they invited themselves here or if I did or if it was all of the above, but I did invite them to stay once they were here. I’m pretty sure I could make this into a four-person curry without much problem. But whether they choose to or not is out of our hands, alright?”

Niall nodded, pressing a quick kiss into his lips. Zayn smiled, poking at his waist and making him laugh.

“Now let’s turn that frown upside down, yeah?” he smiled, nuzzling his jaw and placing a kiss near his ear.

He laughed, uncrossing his arms and pushing him gently away from him. “I was promised curry and wine tonight, and it’s not gonna cook itself with you like this.”

“I have to cook the wine?” he asked, scrunching up his face and poking his waist again.

“Don’t try to get smart with me,” he laughed, pushing him away again.

He was helping him cut the potatoes when Harry popped his head out of Liam’s room, making them turn around as he called out to them.

“Do you two have plans for this Friday night?” he asked, swinging a little as he held himself by the doorframe.

“I don't think so?”

“Great,” he smiled, looking between them and inside Liam’s room. “You wanna go out together, then? It’s Halloween and some places have parties for it…”

Niall shrugged. “Only if we all get matching fancy dresses.”

“I want to go out too!” cried out Louis, crossing into the sitting area and plopping down on the sofa. “Help out a master’s student! Gift me a social life!”

“You’re out being social right now.”

Louis glared at Zayn, giving him the finger.

“Be nice, Louis.” Liam frowned at him as he left his room. He stayed standing up, leaning against the wall beside the sofa. Niall couldn’t help but look at him well, admiring how well he ended up looking. “Also don’t invite yourself places.”

“Join us, then!” he smiled, leaning forward. “So I don’t end up third-wheeling. Well, fourth-wheeling.”

Liam looked at Zayn and Niall, who shrugged. He shrugged a little himself, unblocking the phone in his hands. “I’ll have to see because I think my girlfriend’s got a test that night or she gots to study, in which case I’ll go out with you lot? Can I confirm later?”

“Oh,” said Zayn, his face lighting up. “I was thinking about easy group fancy dresses and can’t we just dress up like those yellow aliens that are everywhere?”

“Absolutely not,” said Harry, sitting down beside Louis and placing his arm behind him on the sofa. Niall took out his own phone, fiddling around with his apps.

“I think it’s just a yellow shirt and suspenders, though?”

“We’re not dressing up as the minions, Zayn!” cried out Louis, leaning back against the backrest and Harry’s arm.

Niall looked up, only glancing at Zayn. He shrugged a little at his questioning stare, “They can be quite annoying, mate. Rather not, sorry.”

Zayn huffed out, slumping against the countertops beside him.

“Well, I gotta go if I wanna beat the huge evening rush,” said Liam. He looked around the room, pocketing his phone. “We’ll text, though, and coordinate? Because I think I’ll go out with you guys, if that’s okay, but I’m not entirely sure yet.”

“Sure, babes.”

“We’d better be going to then, too,” said Harry, standing up from the sofa and lending a hand to Louis so he did the same. “Rather not intrude anymore, and this one has to study.”

“When don’t I have to study?” asked Louis, rolling his eyes. He let go of Harry’s hand before giving them a smile. “Uni life, am I right?”

Niall smiled at him, but next thing he knew, he was watching Harry kissing Zayn right next to him. And Harry was going all out, his hands on cupping his face and he was sure he’d just seen a bit of tongue in there too. Nope, make that quite a lot. He willed his mind to go blank as he watched Zayn kissing him back. Niall looked around, but Louis and Liam had already left the flat without giving him a chance to distract himself with feeble conversation.

When Harry’s lips were on his own, his hands on his hips and his teeth biting in just enough on his bottom lip in order to make him gasp out, he wondered why people always said that they could taste someone else in the equation. It was just Harry all over him, from his lips to his tongue to his hands, ending the kiss as suddenly as he’d started it and giving his a crooked smile.

“See you two later, then?”

Niall blinked, nodding a little.

With another smile, Harry closed the door behind him and talking to Liam outside, leaving them alone in the flat. With nothing else to do, Niall just wrapped his arms around Zayn.

“I keep thinking someone’s going to barge in again and interrupt us,” Niall said, moments later after hiding his face on his chest.

He huffed out a small laugh, making him shake a little along with him. “Door’s locked, so I don’t think so.”

He leaned down to kiss him, pulling him in again by the hips and- Oh. Niall broke the kiss, nuzzling his nose over his jaw as he tried to set his thoughts straight. He sighed out a little against his skin.

“Again, I was promised curry and I’m a hungry lad, I’ll let you know,” he smiled.

He huffed out a laugh, allowing him to push himself away. He shook his head, his eyes bright as he kept smiling, a bit of tongue peeking through his teeth.

“What am I going to do with you?”

“Wine and dine me,” he smirked, pushing him a little towards the countertops to where they’d left the potatoes and vegetables. He did a little dance, moving his hips.

Zayn laughed, picking up the knife and continuing to cut the vegetables. “I can do that, babes.”

Niall smiled, leaning against the countertops as he watched him work, all pretenses of helping him forgotten.

Some hours later, Niall took a deep breath as he sat down again on the bed, running his hands by his thighs. He needed to get the fuck back into exercising, because there was no way he was going to let his legs ache tomorrow or allow for it to become a thing. He grabbed his phone on the bedside table, curling up beside Zayn and breathing him in as his arm wrapped itself around him.

“Go to sleep,” Zayn mumbled as the blinding brightness of his phone lit up the room.

He turned down the brightness. “Gimme a bit,” he said, replying to a text from Deo and switching Snapchat.

He frowned as he opened Louis’ story dated from two hours ago, particularly the ones evidently from after they’d left the flat. He watched on the three snaps until it ended, showing the list of stories from his other friends. He scrolled down, his thumb hovering over Louis’ name before quickly locking the phone.

“Zayn?” he said, pressing a kiss over one of his tattoos.

Zayn hummed, rubbing a hand over his face and mumbling something undecipherable.

“I know I’m going to sound like I’m jealous, and,” he sighed out, hiding his face beside his hand over his chest, “Alright, maybe I am, but do you think Harry and Louis have something between them?”

Zayn opened his eyes, looking down at him with a small frown. “What?”

So he told him about it all, even if his eyes still seemed slow and he hated how his eyebrows furrowed more as he told him about how he met Louis and the way it seemed from their body language and intense stares and the things Louis had said after he’d tried to kiss Niall.

“And I’m pretty sure he meant, like, present-tense snogging, because if it was something that just happened when they were younger or something, I don’t see what I’ve got to do with it?” he finished saying.

He blew out a strand of his hair that had fallen into his face as he propped himself by his elbows. Zayn took a hand to his hair, moving it all out of the way. He pulled the sheet up his back, brows still furrowed as he still seemed to be thinking about his words.

“Can I see that story you mentioned?”

And so he unlocked his phone again, making him blink repeatedly as he thumbed open the story.

“That looks like something I’d do with Li- Oh.”

Niall sighed as his frowned deepened. He kept silent even as the screen went bright, ending the snap where Louis aggressively kissed Harry’s cheek and Harry’s smile was too bright and wide for it to calm any doubts Niall might’ve been having. He laid down a kiss on his shoulder, at loss of what else to say.

“Harry hasn’t told me anything about it,” Zayn finally said, a hand pulling his closer by the hip. Niall placed a leg between his, laying his head over his chest.

“Me neither.”

Zayn hummed under his breath as his hand stroked his lower back.

“Dunno,” he said moments later, when his eyes were finally starting to fall shut. “I’ll pay more attention to them next time and see, but I think you might be right about it, even if just a bit. But, okay. Worse case scenario, we can always ask them.”

“Yeah.” He took a deep breath, nuzzling his head against him.

He didn’t know what to say, so he took a page out of Zayn’s book and decided not to say anything. He just closed his eyes, sighing out as Zayn pressed a kiss on his jaw and focusing on the feel of his skin until he fell asleep.

 

“The Mystery Gang’s all here!”

Niall gave Liam a quick hug, laughing along with him before kissing Zayn.

“Alright, babes?” he said, smiling a little.

“Rough week,” he sighed, smiling up at him. “But feeling better already with everyone around here.”

“That’s the spirit, love.”

Niall closed the door behind him, taking the chance to fully take in their outfits. Zayn's shirt was on the sight of being too tight, but he was not going to complain about it. Liam, on the other hand… Niall looked away from the way the purple dress hugged his figure.

“Looking good, Zayn. You too, Li,” he muttered.

“I mean, when does he ever not look good?” asked Liam, uncrossing his arms to pull down his skirt.

“Oh, come off it, you’re the most beautiful Daphne there ever was,” said Zayn, wrapping an arm around him. “And fuck everyone who stares wrong at you tonight. It’s Halloween.”

Liam shrugged, raising his eyebrows. “Fuck it, I’m going to have some drinks until I don’t care about that anymore.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Niall, slapping his shoulder as he walked away.

Zayn spinned him around a bit, making Niall laugh as he kissed him. He smiled, “C’mon, Lou and Haz are around here somewhere, all mixed up with me friends.”

He couldn’t help but think that it was almost as if two worlds were colliding when he introduced him to Bressie and Eoghan, running into them on their way to their kitchen. They were peacefully colliding, at least, he could tell from the way Eoghan’s smile shone bright as he talked to Zayn. He rolled his eyes at Bressie’s stance and stares, because, honestly.

“You need to fess up about this all later,” said Eoghan, later when Zayn had walked off to serve himself a drink. “C’mon, don’t think you’re getting out of this.”

“Getting out of what?” laughed Niall.

“Look at you, getting out of what? Getting out of telling me what’s going on? You’ve found yourself a harem thanks to Laura signing you up on a speed dating event, and I don’t even get to hear any of the stories on how it happened? I thought we were friends!”

Niall coughed a little as he moved his cup away from his lips. “First of all, it’s not a harem. We’re just friends. And we are friends, the two of us!”

“Not in the same way you’re friends with them, though.” Bressie sighed, smiling at Eoghan. “We’re just joking, but we miss you, though. I’ve barely seen you since you’ve met your harem.”

“It’s not a harem,” repeated Niall, rolling his eyes.

“Are we talking about Niall’s harem?” asked Laura, appearing from behind Bressie all out of the sudden.

Niall groaned out. “We’re all just friends and some of us snog or have sex sometimes. It’s not a harem.”

Laura raised his eyebrows. “Well, I’ll believe it when I see evidence against it. But we need to catch up, don’t we? I really do miss you.”

Niall smiled, nodding a little before glancing at where Harry was laughing loudly. “If you’ll excuse me, my dearest Laura, I want to take a group picture before Eoghan calls the Uber before anyone’s ready.”

“Hey!”

He flipped Eoghan off, walking backwards until reaching his other friends.

Niall wrapped an arm around Liam, pulling him towards him. He knew Zayn would follow not long afterwards, so he focused on the way Liam’s smile lit up the room when he looked at Harry fixing that belt around his neck.

“You actually look like a dog!” Liam exclaimed, freeing himself from Niall to hug a laughing Harry.

“As long as it’s a cute dog,” he laughed, looking at Niall and winking at him. He’d only worn brown clothing and drawn a dog’s nose with what he presumed was eyeliner, but he reckoned he could see the similarity with his long hair like that.

“Of course you are! The cutest dog I’ve ever seen!” said Liam, ruffling his hair a little.

Niall stood beside Louis, smiling as the Harry licking Liam’s cheek as he screamed out.

“Alright, you rad lad?”

Louis glared at him from over the rim of his cup. “A bit jealous that you lot can get wasted, actually. ‘Cause this shit here is just orange juice and I’m absolutely going to need some alcohol in me if you keep calling me that through the night. Also, skirts are more uncomfortable that I thought.”

“Poor you,” said Niall. “Didn’t you have two tests the other day, though? You deserve it.”

“Yeah, but I’m working tomorrow in the morning. Adulting is so hard, Niall. Pro tip: never grow up. But I can have fun, right? Despite not drinking much? I used to be able to do that, I guess I can teach myself to have fun without getting drunk?” said Louis, nodding to himself and jumping up and down a little. “Yeah, I can have fun without drinking!”

“Yeah, so can I. Look,” said Niall, pointedly finishing the contents of his cup.

“Fuck. Off!” said Louis, frowning and pushing him on the shoulder. It might’ve been more effective had he not been smiling, thought Niall.

Niall shoved him away, muttering a quick “no, you fuck off” before Louis struck back with his revenge.

“Oi, oi, what’s happening here?” said Zayn, standing between them. “Tonight’s a special night of festivities and happiness, no need to fight.”

“Louis started it,” said Niall, looking up at Zayn with a pout before hiding his face on his chest. “He was being mean to me.”

“Louis-”

“What?! I started it? You’re joking, right?”

The thing is, Niall was not sure on how these things always happened. Next thing he knew, Zayn was handing him his cup, and… Now this. They always ended up like this, it seemed, messing about with each other screaming and laughing. Niall couldn’t help but smile as Louis kept repeating that he wouldn’t apologize, laughing as Zayn wrapped his arms around him from behind him. The orange skirt he was wearing rode up as he struggled to set himself free from Zayn’s grip, riding up and up his thigh.

Niall looked away, glancing to the rest of their friends. Liam was looking at them as he listened to Harry talking, but meeting Niall’s eyes for a second before looking away.

They both drank from the cups.

“Alright, the Uber’s called! Shots! Shots! Shots!” Eoghan’s voice called out.

Niall rolled his eyes. “I’ll call another because we’re not going to fit all in one,” he said to Liam, who nodded. "And, yes, you too, Louis are doing shots, c'mon."

He pretty much ended up sitting on Harry's lap during the Uber ride in the backseat, turning to whisper how this Bieber song playing was really a masterpiece in disguise. Liam and Louis argued about something in the middle seat, Zayn adding a word or two from the front seat.

It was weird to say that the rides were one of his favorite parts of the night outs, especially when people usually expected something better, but it was the truth. There was something about the excitement in the air about a night out that had the potential to be something great and fun that really got to Niall, made him smile all wide and giddy. And especially if the Uber driver played good music on a loud music, making you feel the beats and the bass around your body as the load of shots and drinks you'd already had spread around your body.

Niall loved it.

Niall loved it so much more than this damned club, even if it was usually one of his favorites and he knew he would eventually find a good space and that he could always escape to the dancefloor.

"We're doing more shots!" announced Harry, raising his arms as he turned around to look at them better. "On me, even you Lou."

“No, absolutely not,” said Louis, pointing at a small table before heading off to it.

And that's how he found himself on a small tall table with Louis, having a drink as he looked over at the others on the dancefloor. He had no idea what Harry was doing, but at least it was fun to watch.

"Oh, yeah, he's always been like that," said Louis when he told him this. "Absolutely shit on rhythm but that doesn't stop him from dancing at all, which I think is actually quite good actually."

"What about you?" smiled Niall, looking at him and his ruffled hair. "You got some dancing feet?"

"Absolutely not," he laughed. "No, absolutely not. Sometimes I think the stereotype on the internet that white people can't dance is really unfair, because who are you to judge my dancing when I'm a bit drunk? No one dances well when they’re drunk! But then I see videos of myself, drunk or not, and it's like, eh, fair enough."

Niall laughed, his phone vibrating in his pocket. He replied to Bres, telling him it was alright, they were all bound to split up at some point in the night. And, no, it was not a harem.

He couldn't help but feel a bit of _something_ in his lower stomach as he wrote it out. He ignored it, drinking a good bit of his glass.

"Never let Liam road you off into dancing with him," said Zayn loudly, reaching their table and settling himself beside Niall with a loud, over-the-top sigh.

Niall accepted the kiss on his cheek, settling himself better as he grabbed his hand over his shoulder. "Don't blame him. You let yourself be dragged off into dancing with him."

Zayn shrugged, leaning towards him and smiling. "You good, babe?"

He smiled. "Yeah."

"Think I'm going to get a drink for meself," he said, his breath against his ear. "Want something?"

Niall shook his head, watching him walk off before turning to Louis.

"Zayn was a rather good dancer, though, wasn't he?" he asked Louis, making him look up from his phone.

"Oh, he was, wasn't he? But let's not tell him, because that'll just make him more vain, I think," he said, winking at Niall before looking out into the dance floor once more. Niall took out his phone, checking all his social media apps. Louis added, "Liam's good, though. Proper good."

"Is there something he isn't good at, though?" smiled Niall, looking out to where he wrapped his arms around Harry on the dancefloor. The difference was staggering, from the way they carried themselves and moved their hips along with the rhythm.

Louis smiled, scrunching up his nose. "Don't think so, honestly. But don't tell Liam I said that."

"Don't tell Liam you said what?" asked Zayn, appearing once more with a beer on his hand and wrapping an arm around Niall's waist.

"We don't think that Liam might be bad at anything," said Niall, looking up as a soft smile appeared on his lips, dissipating the frown he'd previously worn.

"He's great, isn't he?" he smiled. "I know you two have this thing where this thing where you pretend to hate each other, but it wouldn't be bad for you to remind him that from to time to time. He doesn't believe me when I tell him he's good at stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Any stuff, like," he shrugged.

Niall laughed. Louis chuckled a little too, biting his lower lip. He turned to his phone, so Niall turned to Zayn, smiling when his arm tightened its hold around his waist.

"Hey."

"Hey, long time no see," he smiled.

"I know. Just a minute or two while you looked for your drink," he smiled, rolling his eyes.

Zayn smiled, hiding his face on his neck. He smiled, wrapping his arms around him as his hands traveled around and he felt a light kiss on his collarbone. And, really, it was always so, so easy to initiate anything with him. It wasn’t hard to redirect his lips towards his own.

He smiled. It was so easy, yet so satisfying to get exactly what he wanted out of him, as if he knew without a word that he wanted to be grabbed by the arse and pulled closer.

A newer song started in the distance, making him smile 'cause it was such a great song, damn it. Zayn's hands went to cup his face and he was so, so happy, even when another one faded in as Zayn pressed himself closer.

Niall pressed a leg between his, turning the snog hotter as his body reacted against Zayn’s. Another hand travelled underneath his shirt, just moving around and teasing his around his lower back, around the seam of his trousers, moving up and down but never going nowhere and he fucking needed to breathe.

Niall winced against the edge of the high table as he broke off from the series of snogs, taking a deep breath against his shoulder. He just needed to fucking breathe for a minute or two because Zayn was too much, too soon, too quick.

“You gonna do something or not?” he said between breaths, taking a hand to Zayn’s hair as he stared down at that fucking smirk.

“Do something?” he said, his lips teasing him around his ear.

“Yeah,” he breathed in, closing his eyes as his lips worked their way down to his collarbone. He pulled Zayn’s hair a bit, drawing out a soft noise out of him. Huh. Interesting. “You can’t just tease. S’rude.”

“Me? Rude? Never,” he murmured, biting down a little. He felt his smile as he took a deep breath and he really was going to kick him one of these days. Because it really was fucking unfair to wind him up like that and make him so receptive to his every move, everything just piling and piling up with no end in sight.

He groaned, pulling him in by the hips. Zayn laughed against his lips and he really hated him so fucking much, fucking hell. 

“You two want to go get a room?” Louis’ loud voice rang out from beside him. Niall jumped a little, taking a deep breath as he glared at him. Louis rolled his eyes. “Or not. Just stop eating each other’s faces beside me, for fuck’s sake.”

Niall felt Zayn humming, smiling against his ear. “We could. Go to a stall,” he murmured, his breath warm against his skin.

He turned to look at him better, breathing deeply and recognizing very well the warm feeling inside him as he looked into his eyes and realized he was serious. He nodded, trying to focus on his breathing right now.

“But you go first,” Niall said, pressing his hips against his and pecking him on his lips. He raised an eyebrow. “Or I know you're going to take your fucking time walking to the bathroom.”

He smiled, biting down on his lower lip a little. “’Kay, just don’t back down, yeah?”

“Just make me come, yeah? Be good to me? Or else we’re going to have some problems.”

Zayn snorted out a laugh, kissing him once more before stepping away. “F'course. See you in a bit,” he said with a wink.

Niall took a deep breath, redoing his hair before turning around to face Louis. He breathed in a shaky breath.

“Sorry about that,” Niall laughed, feeling the moisture accumulated around his forgotten glass under his hand. He gulped it down.

“Are you really going to go after him?” said Louis, eyes wide as he glanced to where Zayn had disappeared off to.

He shrugged. “Of course. We’re only young once. Why not?”

“I was joking.” Louis stared at him before taking a deep breath and unlocking the phone in his hands. “I’m really reconsidering the not getting drunk tonight thing.”

Niall chuckled. “Harry and Liam should get a bit tired soon. They’ll entertain you, don’t worry.” He winked at Louis before setting off in the direction he’d seen Zayn leave.

Zayn dragged him to the stall on the corner, locking the door behind him. “Washed me hands, otherwise this would be so unhygienic,” he muttered.

Niall laughed out loud, barely minding it when his head struck the wall behind him.

Zayn’s lips found his own, kissing the laughter away as he pressed him against the wall. He sighed out, taking one of his hands and taking it beneath his shirt while he unzipped his trousers.

“I think you promised me something,” he said, frowning at the way Zayn laughed against his neck.

“What’s the rush, babe?”

Niall huffed out, pushing Zayn's hand down. “I promise I’ll be as slow and teasing as you want later when I go down on you, but now’s not the time. C’mon.”

“Fuck.”

He closed his eyes as the hand finally found its way to his dick, curled lazily around it. Zayn kissed his neck as he breathed in, throwing his head back as the hand dragged its way up.

He gripped one of those metallic things as Zayn dropped to his knees, properly pulling his trousers down. He took his other hand to Zayn’s hair and pulling it to see what would happen this time. And, fuck, he whimpered a little at the feel of Zayn’s moan against his dick.

He pulled more of Zayn’s hair, breathing out sharply as he repeated his reaction. He got the idea after that and Niall really wasn’t sure how much of a good idea that all was, from the way he was now using it to tease him and drag it all out. He could still listen the pounding music and its bass in the distance, making his skin feel like it was vibrating too, so he focused on that while he felt himself slowly coming down from his orgasm.

“Not to be a lad, but I swear I don’t usually come this easily,” he breathed out, taking his hand to his own hair and closing his eyes once more as he tried to pull himself together.

Zayn stood up. His lips vibrated just slightly against his neck as he hummed, smiling, before kissing him softly. “I’m glad, then.”

“Not.”

“Yeah.”

Niall breathed in, looking at him before exhaling. “Whatever you want to think.”

He smiled, kissing him once more and making him close his eyes as a hand went up to cup his cheek. “You’re really beautiful like this. Always are, but especially like this.”

Niall sighed out, feeling himself reddening before flipping him around so he was now against the wall and kissing him.

He’d almost forgotten how it felt like to be in a room full of tension, until they’d both returned to their table on the corner, Liam and Louis’ laughter dissipating from something that Harry had said.

“Where did you two go?” asked Liam, hugging Niall. He pouted a little. “Missed you.”

“Um, bathroom,” he said, knowing very well that Harry was beside him and would inevitably hear. It didn’t help that he glanced over to see him slightly frown at the empty glass in front of him.

“Toge- Oh. Right, f’course,” said Liam, making to move away from him.

“No, don’t do this, you’re the best hugger and cuddler here,” he said, running a hand down Liam’s back.

“Excuse me,” said Harry, his frown a lot more noticeable now. “I’m the best hugger and cuddler here.”

“No, he said I am.”

“But I’m the best!”

“You wanna fight, mate?” said Liam, pushing himself away from Niall and nudging Harry with a hand and a smile.

Harry smiled, shaking his head and bouncing on his feet. “Don’t make me fight you.”

Liam faked a punch on his stomach, instantly hugging him as he did so.

Niall laughed, looking to his other side as he heard Louis laughing too, but it seemed that he was laughing at something Zayn was telling him now, his hands covering his smile and his phone seemingly long forgotten by now.

“I actually want another drink,” said Harry with a pout. “S’too hot in here and another cocktail will help me, right?”

“Something like that,” said Liam, smiling and ruffling his hair.

“Oh, let’s go then,” said Niall, taking his hand and leading him away from the table.

“So we haven’t really had time to catch up, just the two of us,” he said, after he’d ordered their drinks.

“Huh,” said Niall, looking at him and cocking his head. “Guess so.”

“I heard your human rights class had a massive paper due this week, was-”

“Ugh, let’s not talk about uni right now, shall we?” said Niall, making a face at him before smiling at the bloke handing them their drinks. “We’re together now all having fun without any care in the world, aren’t we? Ugh, nevermind the fun part, too many people.”

Harry nodded, following him out of the crowded area. “Guess so. Adulting is hard.”

“Studenting is hard too,” he added.

“Studying, you mean.”

“Exactly, yeah.”

“It’s just,” he said, once back in the high table. He shrugged.

Zayn, Louis, and Liam were too engrossed in a their conversation to notice that they’d returned.

“I guess, yeah, it’s just hard to coordinate with everyone sometimes,” he said, shrugging again and taking a sip of his drink. It was green and blue and Niall had no idea how that could be and couldn’t even remember what it’d been called, but he took a sigh and refused to roll his eyes because he knew what was coming. “But you wanna get coffee or something next week? The two of us, I mean.”

Niall took a good slurp out of his whiskey coke. He didn’t want to be an wanker about it, he didn’t, but he had seen Harry’s frowns ever since he got back from the loo with Zayn and that was absolutely not fair. And he hadn’t blown himself off in the stall. Zayn had been there as well. Why the fuck wasn’t he acting like this with him then? It wasn’t fair.

The three of them knew what they were doing, what they had signed up for. 

Anyway, it just wasn’t fair, all those little frowns and now this insistence that he was giving him as he stood tall in front of him and the others were laughing just a few feet away.

“Sure,” he said finally, taking in Harry’s reaction, how his shoulders relaxed just slightly and he gave him a small smile. “Coffee and some studying alright? We’ll text each other, alright?”

Harry smiled widened. “Right. Sure.”

He nodded, finishing up his drink and setting the glass on the table. He’d drunk it way too fast and he knew he was going to start feeling it very soon, but fuck it.

“Liam,” he said, turning around and placing a hand on his shoulder, even if it interrupted his conversation with Louis and Zayn. “Wanna go for a bit of a dance?”

His eyes lit up with his broad smile. Niall couldn’t help but doing the same. “Sure!”

Niall closed his eyes, taking his hands into his hair as he heard the song ringing around the dancefloor more clearly, with its deep bass and its funky trumpets and he loved this so much.

“Didn’t think you liked dancing,” said Liam, moving his hips along with the beat.

“Only after a few drinks,” laughed out Niall, basically screaming over the bass.

Liam laughed along, scrunching his eyes up and leaning forward with the force of it all, so Niall wrapped his arm around him. They moved their hips, just side to side to side to side because even this drunk Niall knew that he wasn’t anymore coordinated than that, before taking Liam on a spin.

Liam laughed, pulling him closer along as the song changed into a newer one Niall didn’t know.

“Thank you, by the way,” said Liam, pulling him close and practically needing to yell into his ear. “For inviting me over, I mean.”

Niall could feel that little frown forming in his face, pulling Liam closer to talk to him better. “S’just dancing.”

“No, I mean.” He felt Liam’s sigh against his neck. Niall tried not to think about how close they were, about how he was standing still but Liam was still dancing subtly and his hips were moving along with the new beat and Niall tried not to think about how they could most probably be seen by the others from their table in the corner. “Tonight, on the pub. Instead of it being you three.”

“What? As if we were going to leave you home all by yourself?” said Niall loudly, knowing very well that Liam heard him as he pulled away just in time to see him shrug. “Love.”

“Forget about it then!”

Niall grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards him, placing another hand on his waist.

“What would we be doing without you? Talking all bored at that table without no one to dance with?” he said, turning him around with the song. And again. Liam cried out. “We wouldn’t be laughing as much either without you.”

“Okay, fine, just stop twirling me!” laughed out Liam, hiding his face on Niall’s shoulder.

Niall kissed his cheek, smiling wider when he scrunched up his face.

“Liiiiaaaam, Niiiaaaaall, I’m bored,” said Harry, appearing out of nowhere and wrapping his arms around them. He kissed both their cheeks before pouting at Niall. “They’re talking about superheroes and they told me the Powerpuff Girls do not really count as superheroes and it’s too hot in here and I’m booooored.”

“Dance with us!”

Niall laughed, breaking free from his grasp and mouthing the words along with Liam _._ He danced around Harry, smiling as Liam screamed and broke free of another of his hugs. He wrapped his arms around Liam as he laughed into his shoulder, the music blasting around him and some girl was singing about only wanting to die alive and what the fuck was wrong with lyricists these days and Liam smelled nice, despite all the sweat and drinking, so Niall closed his eyes.

“Harry! No!”

He opened his eyes, trying to figure out the scene in front of him.

“It’s just too uncomfortable, Li,” he said, taking his hands to his upper back and pulling his shirt and- Oh.

“Harry, pet, no, you’re really going to get us kicked out,” Niall said, pulling his shirt back down and trying not to get distracted by the tattoos he’d just seen.

“So? Let them kick me out,” he said, shrugging a little before taking his hands to the belt by his neck. He swiftly unbuckled it and started to take it out. Niall grabbed it, careful not to hurt him.

“Harry, dear, what if we talk to Zayn and Louis and we leave for somewhere else? It’ll be cooler outside. Maybe eat something?” said Liam, covering his hands with his own.

“It’s not about the warmth, Liam. It’s about these… Restrictions placed on us by society called clothes. They’re a plague and I hate them. Fuck them,” he said, taking a hand underneath his shirt. He blinked, glancing at Liam. “Except we shouldn't really fuck them, let's not. And kebabs sounds good, though. Or maybe some Ethiopian.”

“Hmm, sure, love. Whatever you want,” said Liam, rolling his eyes at Niall. He smiled.

“Where did you even find this blue belt?” asked Niall, trying to prevent him from removing his other belt, the one properly secured in his trousers.

“I’ll have you know, Horan, a blue belt is an essential part of every wardrobe,” said Harry, frowning as Liam took his hand and led him out of the dance floor. “Also I bought it at a charity shop.”

“Smart,” he said, keeping an arm around him as they reached their table and Liam talked with Zayn and Louis.

“S’part of the costume,” said Harry, looking at him. “A dog. Why’d you think that dog’s used as an insult for men? Dogs are lovely. They’re beautiful. They’re the best. It’s not their fault we’re shit.”

Niall laughed, pushing himself on his tiptoes to peck a kiss on his lips.

“You’re right. It really isn’t fair,” he said, tilting his head. “But it’s probably because many men hump everything they see.”

Harry huffed out, annoyed. “Well, I don’t hump everything I see. Don’t want to.”

“Well, that’s very good of you, pet.”

“Let’s go to McDonald’s!” exclaimed Louis, placing his hands on their shoulders before raising them. “Let’s go, go, go, go!”

Later in the streets, Niall had somehow found himself to be Harry’s caretaker as the other three walked in front of them, talking animatedly and singing from time to time. Niall heard something about black peas, so he gathered it was something about that.

Weird.

Harry dropped his hand, but he barely had any time to react before he hugged him from behind, hiding his face on his hair. He mumbled something out.

“What?” he asked, taking a hand to pet his hair.

 _“she’s got me spendiiiiin’”_ came out from in front of them.

“Missed you,” said Harry by his ear.

_“what you gonna do with all that junk, all that junk-”_

“Missed me?”  

“Yeah, I feel like I’ve barely seen you,” he muttered. “Missed you and hope I haven’t done anything wrong 'cause I feel like you're always with Zayn. If you like him more than me, you can just tell me and leave me alone to my misery.”

Niall took a deep breath, trying to shake away the heavy feeling inside him. He tried not to smile and roll his eyes as he finally recognized the _‘cause of my humps!_ because it really wasn’t the time for this.

Idiots.

“No, of course not, pet,” he said, taking Harry by the hand and trying to stand beside him once more. “Well, it’d be better if we could both walk properly.”

“Oh, sorry,” he said, ending their hug and snuggling beside him.

“And if you didn’t try to strip off your clothes when drunk.”

“I’m not going to apologize for that,” he said, frowning a little. “There is nothing stopping me from wearing clothes or not wearing them. It’s a choice and I’d rather choose not wear any clothes.”

“Well, when you get arrested for public misbehavior, don’t expect me to do pick you up,” he said, laughing a little at his reaction.

“McDonald’s!” cried out Liam in front of them.

Niall grabbed his hand, stopping him from following the others inside. “Harry, since when have you felt this way? Thinking I like Zayn more than you, I mean.”

“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” he shrugged, biting his lower lip. He threw an arm over Niall’s shoulders, pulling him closer. “But can you stay over at mine this time? We can talk then. ‘Cause I want to talk to you. I want to spend time with you too. I miss you.”

Niall nodded, pushing himself up to kiss him briefly. “Of course, baby. Of course.”

It wasn’t until he was inside the shop that the lights made it easier to examine Harry, realizing what was off with him.

“Haz, where’s your socks, love?” he asked, as they waited for their order.

“Off my feet.”

He inhaled, trying to keep his voice as level as ever. “Okay, but where?”

Harry shrugged. “Don’t know, really. But they were making me uncomfortable so I took them off. Big deal.”

Niall took his hands to his hair, forcing himself to take a deep breath. He was neither drunk or sober enough for this. When he opened his eyes, Louis was looking at him, shaking his head.

“You’re the one that gave him that last drink,” he said, shrugging a little. “I warned you all that he starts stripping off when he’s plastered, but did you listen to me? No. So it’s on you, don’t look at me.”

“I’m right here,” said Harry, glaring a little at him. “And I have feelings, you know.”

Thankfully, his order came out before anyone else could say anything else. Even more thankfully, his nuggets seemed to calm him down, resting his head on Zayn’s shoulder. Zayn talked with Louis and Liam, a hand running through Harry’s hair and making him close his eyes from time to time.

Niall looked at the nuggets in front of him. He knew he wasn’t that drunk, and he knew they’d be as delicious as always, but he couldn’t help but look around the table as they ate and talked. There was something captivating about them, how they were just always smiling and laughing with each other and there was something about it, but he just didn’t know what it was yet.

He needed to find out what it was.

One of Liam’s hands covered his own.

“Alright?” he asked, barely audible as Zayn sighed out and Louis raised his hands and cried out “The Powerpuff Girls are not real superheroes, Harry!”

“Says who?!””

Niall smiled, nodding at Liam. He could figure it out later, but for now, he needed to defend the Powerpuff Girls’ honor.

“I can’t believe that you both live together,” said Niall, moments later, shaking his head as he huffed out a small laugh. “From the way you both talked about barely ever seeing each other, I’d thought that you lived far from each other.”

“Well, alright,” said Louis, throwing him a quick glare from where he buzzed into the building. “It’s just that our schedules barely coincide, so we barely see each other even though we live together.”

“Yeah, so whenever we’re both free, I mostly make him do something social, so he doesn’t forget how the sunlight feels like, or how adults behave outside of a hospital or library,” said Harry, closing the door behind them and leading Niall to the lift. He looked at Louis. “Not that London’s good to feel the sunlight. But feel something other than artificial lights. You know they’re bad for your skin, right?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely. My skin feels even one percent of sunlight, and it’s pretty much as if I’m a brand new person,” smiled Louis, winking at a laughing Niall. “C’mon, loves, up we go.”

Not long after, after Louis had forced them both to drink a big glass of water, he pressed a kiss on Niall’s forehead, glancing at him for a second before moving aside to kiss Harry on the cheek.

“Remember what we’ve talked about, alright?” he said, looking at him seriously.

Harry nodded, moving a hand to Niall’s lower back. “C’mon, let’s get ready for our sleep, Niall.”

Niall blinked, replacing the glass in his hands on the countertops, trying to align it perfectly with the others before Harry pushed him away and towards his room.

Niall didn’t exactly know what to do as Harry closed the door behind him. Not that he spent a lot of time imagining how Harry’s room would be, but he wasn’t very surprised to see a few posters of bands unknown to him and lots and lots of clothes thrown around the room. It was just, he'd never been.

“Finally, home sweet home.”

That was all that he could pay attention before Harry started stripping off all of his clothes barely over a meter away and he hadn’t thought that he would have so many stupid tattoos covering his body and- Nope. This was not okay.

“Do you want some clothes? To sleep in, I mean,” he said, as if he wasn’t speaking to him in his tighty whities and Niall wasn't having trouble looking anywhere else. “Oh, sorry, I should’ve warned you that I normally sleep naked. I’ll make an exception for tonight, though, don’t worry.”

“I should’ve imagined from the way we had to stop you from stripping all your clothes earlier,” he smiled, shaking his head and looking away. “Um, a large shirt would be nice, actually.”

Niall turned around before stripping off his green shirt. He had drunk enough to not care so much, but apparently not enough to be able to ignore how the air around him felt heavy despite the way it seemed to leave Harry unaffected.

“I- Uhm, can I ask you something without you freaking out on me?” said Niall, turning around and walking to the bed where Harry now laid over, his eyes widening a bit more with each passing second. He sat beside him, his legs folded beneath him. “And I know that usually when someone says something like this, the first thing people do is freak out even when you tell them not to, but, well-”

Harry blinked, raising his eyebrows just a little. “Alright, shoot, then.”

“Are you and Louis, like… Together? Because I don’t think we should, well, keep on with what we’re doing if you two are genuinely dating each other.”

Harry sighed, closing his eyes and covering his face with his hands as he stretched over his bed. “I'm not sober enough for this conversation.”

Niall kept silent, tracing weird pictures on his thighs.

Harry sighed once more, stretching his arms before sitting up a little to look at Niall better. “I know Louis told you a lot, so don’t worry about that part. But long story short, we’re kind of seeing where things go, taking it slow. We don’t want to ruin our friendship, you see.”

“And you seeing two other people wouldn’t help ruin things? And not telling the other two people involved?”

Harry reached for his hand, properly holding it after a few seconds of Niall not doing anything to move it away.

“I should’ve told you earlier.”

“Or at all, because Zayn and me had to figure it out for ourselves until Louis pretty much confirmed it to me the other day at the pub,” said Niall, eyes wide as he shook his head.

Harry looked up, taking a deep breath as he kept on looking and looking at him, his eyes seeming to examine everything that he was and is and would be.

“You’re mad,” he simply said.

“I’m not mad.”

“You’re mad. That’s why you’ve barely talked to me, isn’t it?”

Niall looked away, fiddling with a loose string around the end of his shirt. He regretted this so fucking much, God. This was not the type of conversation he wanted to have right now, wearing his briefs and one of Harry’s shirts that was too big on him.

And he was wrong. He wasn’t mad. He didn’t know what he felt, because it wasn’t as they were officially dating and it wasn’t as if Niall hadn’t kissed anyone else other than Harry, but he was not mad. That he knew.

Harry sighed, running a hand through his long hair.

“I was trying to figure out how to tell you without you getting mad, but I guess I fucked that up really badly, didn’t I? Yes, I want to see where we go with this, but I also like you and Zayn a lot and I know it’s casual and everything, but… Is it selfish of me to want to be with the people I want to be in my life? I don’t think so. But anyway, I kind of freaked out and ended up not telling you.” He sighed, playing with his hand. “At least it’s you. I don’t want to see Zayn mad, I think. Oh God, I just made it a lot more worse than it was by not telling him, didn’t I?”

“Yeah, a bit,” said Niall, biting his lower lip. “But like, I said, though. We both kinda already knew.”

“He’s… He’s not mad?”

Niall shrugged a little as he brought his legs up, hugging them and resting his head over them. “You should talk to him. That’s between you two.”

Harry nodded to himself. “Right. Fair enough. We okay, though?”

He closed his eyes, considering everything for a second before nodding. Niall looked at him as he sighed and stretched out on the bed. He raised an eyebrow when he didn’t move to lay beside him.

He had to thank his metabolism, really, but right now, he wished he had a little bit more alcohol running through his veins. It wasn’t prying if it had the potential of involving him, right?

“Is that what Louis was referring to before? About, um, something you'd talked about?”

Harry sighed, closing his eyes. He chuckled, “You don’t let me strip in the pub. You don’t let me sleep in my bed. What am I going to do with you?”

Niall looked away. “Sorry, s’just-”

“S’alright. No harm done, it’s just-” He sighed again, pressing his hands against his face. “Yeah, we should talk about this. We should. Could I get a cuddle while I talk about this with you? That’d be nice, I mean. I was, um, planning on telling you the next time I saw you, or tomorrow, but we could do it now. Just get it over with, you know?”

Niall nodded, exhaling a little as he dragged himself beside him, laying down his head on his shoulder as his arm circled him. He could see the way his chest rose and fell slowly with each counted breath, so much that he could feel his head going along with it.

He reached up to place a kiss on his jaw, running his hand by his chest and the handful of tattoos. He needed to remember to ask about them, later, when the time was right.

“So, um, did Louis told you why he was, um, that way the day he properly met you?” he started.

“He said he blew over at you with his feelings or something,” muttered Niall.

“Well, the thing with Lou and I... It was just a bit of misunderstanding and miscommunication, which did you know is the leading factor for fights in couples? Just, lack of good communication,” he started. Niall looked up, nodding a little. Harry bit his lip. “And, well, it was kinda my fault, though Lou says it isn’t. Maybe he’s a bit right. Shared fault and everything. Nothing is black and white. Everything's grey. But, um, anyway, he started kissing me and, okay, great. Amazing. Except that it escalated and Lou thought that I didn’t want to, well, that I didn’t want to sex with him, specifically. So that’s, okay, that’s true. S’just that, well, he ran out before I told him that I just didn’t want to have sex. At all. With, like, anyone. ‘Cause, like, I’m asexual, pretty sure. So, um… yeah.”

Niall hummed, pushing himself up to look up at Harry better, even when he was so obviously trying to look anywhere except a fixed spot above them in the ceiling as he bit his bottom lip. Niall reached up to run a hand through Harry’s hair.

“But you both talked about it and everything’s alright, yeah?” Niall asked, his soft voice breaking the silence.

“Yeah.”

“And this is okay, yeah?” he asked, reaching up to peck a kiss on Harry’s cheek.

Harry smiled. “Yeah. Very much, yeah.”

“Good, then,” he smiled.

“This is okay too, by the way,” said Harry, moving down to kiss him gently.

“Good, then,” Niall smiled, huffing out a little laugh before running a hand through Harry’s hair. “Don’t-” He bit his lower lip, trying to not say the wrong thing. “I just like spending time with you, yeah? Don’t care what or where, as long as you’re smiling.”

“Really?”

And, God, it was hard to keep himself from smiling wide when he was looking at him like that, eyes all scrunched up and his dimples adorning his beautiful smile. One of his hands had found its way to his lower back, slowly running up and down his back and taking the oversized tshirt with it, and Niall just felt so overflowing with every single positive feeling in this moment.

He smiled wide, moving down to give him a proper kiss. He let him keep it slow and soft as he reached up to place an arm beside him, his small body covering him.

“Of course, pet. Of course,” he smiled out, giving him another quick kiss before looking at him properly. He tried to give Harry the best serious face he could, but from his chuckles, he gathered he wasn’t doing a very good job at it. “But you need to talk to me, alright? Tell me what’s okay and what’s not, or otherwise I won’t know and I don’t… I don’t want to mess this up, Harry.”

Harry nodded, bringing up a hand. “Pinky promise.”

Niall huffed out a small laugh as he intertwined their pinkies. “You’re ridiculous.”

“M’not.”

“Adorably ridiculous.”

“Well, I guess that’s a little bit better.”

“Babe,” said Niall, running a thumb by his cheek as he managed to slowly understand more shit. “Just because Zayn and I have slept together, doesn’t mean we’ve got to or that it means I’m going to, like, choose him over you. You- You know that, don’t you? At least now you do?”

Harry shrugged, nodding a little.

“I’m serious, Harry. Listen to me,” he said, taking a hand to redirect his face towards him. "Do you and Zayn interact the same way me and you do? Is it all exactly same?"

"Well, no," he muttered. 

"Then the way Zayn and I interact is going to be different, too," he explained, taking a deep breath. He tried to soften his voice a little, "But it doesn't mean that I'm going to choose him over you in any sort of way. 'Cause I don't want that."

His hand went to Niall’s face, smoothing out his frown. “That’s pretty much what Louis said too. But it’s nice to have some sort of a confirmation about it, I guess.”

Niall sighed, taking his hand and placing a kiss on it. “Good. It’s all good, babe. You and me don’t have to be like me and Zayn. We don't have to, like, have sex or have messy blowjobs or anything you don't want to. And I'm more than okay with it, so don't worry about me.”

Harry nodded, pulling him closer. “I know. Like, logically, I know. Emotionally, I think I need a little more time to fully understand that.”

“Of course, love, don’t worry about that,” muttered Niall, running a hand through Harry’s hair. His eyes closed for a few seconds. Niall took a deep breath, guessing they should just confess everything, even if just briefly, before they fell asleep. “Did… Has Louis told you, um, anything about me?”

Harry blinked. “Is this about that time he tried to kiss you?”

Niall huffed out a small laugh, nodding as he played with Harry’s hand. “Since we’re talking about the importance of communication, yeah.”

“I knew about that, yeah.” Harry yawned a little as he slurred his words together. “Were you properly avoiding me, then? Wasn’t just me thinking that?”

“A bit, yeah. I didn’t want to get in the middle of you two,” Niall admitted. “I guess I was a bit jealous too.”

Harry hummed, running his hand by his back once more as he closed his eyes.

Niall sighed a little. “Okay. We can talk about this more tomorrow, babe. Or not, whatever you want, okay?”

Harry smiled, kissing him briefly. It wasn’t long until he closed his eyes and instantly fell asleep, the warmth on his body and his arm wrapped around his enough to calm him down into sleep.

 

Niall blinked as he looked around the unfamiliar bedroom, rubbing his eyes before glancing once more at the overly bright room. He sighed, finding his phone nearby and checking the hour.

He left the room after having given up trying to find his clothes. He blinked a little when he saw Harry sat on the small dining table, Louis washing a plate on the sink beside him.

“Hey, morning,” Harry said.

Niall’s mind felt slow as he stopped beside him. He could feel Louis’ stare as he placed a kiss on Harry’s hair. It wasn’t until his mind cataloged the fact that he was only wearing pants and some large tank top, that he kinda got it. He felt ridiculously underdressed compared to Louis, with his green scrubs and white shoes.

Niall took his hand to his hair. He didn’t miss the rosy cheeks as Louis turned to the sink, placing the dish carefully on the drying rack. He looked down to the white shirt, trying to read off some letters like the ones he saw on the telly when people went to get their eyes checked. And, okay, maybe he should… Do something about it.

“Where’s my clothes?” he asked, looking at Harry.

He looked up from his food. “In the washer? Today is laundry day and your trousers had some weird stains at the bottom so I decided to wash them while you woke up and had breakfast. S’that alright?”

He nodded, his eyes following his hands to where they offered him a paracetamol.

He shook his head. “I’m good. I’m just going to eat a bit.”

“You drank more than me,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but I’m Irish. I don’t embarrass myself when I’m drunk,” he said, shrugging a little.

Louis turned around, laughing a little as he placed his hands on Niall’s shoulders. “I’ve got to run for work, but here’s what we’re going to do, alright? Either you take those or I won’t serve you the lovely breakfast I made for you and Haz.”

He frowned. That was not something to smile at, he didn’t know why Louis was smiling. “Or I could serve it myself.”

Louis placed the pink tablet on his palm, quickly serving him a glass of water. “Drink that and wear some proper clothes in the meantime, alright? Harry should have some that fit you.”

He added a kiss on his cheek, so Niall really had no choice but to take the glass of water as he stared at Louis as he left him a plate of food on the table, kissing Harry before leaving for work. He glanced at Harry, who continued to try to grab a small piece of potato with his fork. He smiled when he saw he’d managed it when he sat down beside him.

“So,” Harry said, resting a hand on his thigh right as he got a bite out of the omelette. Harry set down his cup of coffee. He smiled, the dimples forming beside his mouth. “Now that it’s the two of us, um, I’m not sure if I apologized last night about the thing with Louis? So, I’m sorry about that.”

He gulped, setting down the fork on the table. He turned to smile at him better.

“You’re forgiven,” he said, nodding a little. “But next time something like this happens, you talk to us about this, alright? And you still need to talk about Zayn about it, don’t forget.”

“Oh, I haven’t. But, right, does this mean should I tell you about the long list of lovers I’ve got then?” he asked seriously, but only managing a second or two before laughing loudly. “S’just Louis, don’t worry.”

Niall rolled his eyes, leaning forward towards him.

“I’m sorry too, for being jealous,” he added in response to his raised eyebrows.

“Don’t apologize for your feelings, love,” he said, running a hand by Niall’s hair.

“For the way I acted because I was jealous, then,” he said, shrugging a little.

Harry smiled. “Alright. Forgiven. And me too.”

“I’ll go out for coffee with you whenever you want now. Or go anywhere to do anything you want, really.”

Harry laughed, his eyes scrunching up right before kissing him. Niall smiled, taking a hand to his face and feeling calmer with each kiss more he gave him. He scrunched up his nose a little, pushing him away a little.

“Don’t forgive that morning breath, though,” he said, pulling a face as Harry laughed loudly, his hand covering his smile.

He smiled, pressing another quick kiss to his lips. They would talk better later, such as later with some music in the background as Harry painted Niall’s nails in an easy attempt to stop him from biting them so much. Niall nodded as Harry’s talked and talked, both of them forced to lay still for an infinite amount of time, trying not to close their eyes and fall asleep together again.

 

Niall sighed, moving some shirts away from his desk. He knew that some weren’t even his, but he couldn’t figure out whose they were and why they’d decided to leave them in his room. Probably Harry’s, he gathered. Only he would be okay with leaving his flat without any shirt underneath his jacket, despite how this early November was feeling a lot like February.

He looked at the time, cursing as he decided to wear the shirt in his hands at loss of what else to do. It wasn’t long until he rushed out his room as he hastily tied his boots together, and grabbing the crisps and Louis’ book before leaving.

He flicked through the book as he sat on the beautiful seat he’d found on the Tube, something about the psychopaths and the government or something like that. Louis had given it to Zayn last time they were all at his flat, just a few days ago, but it stayed forgotten until hours later when Niall was alone again in his flat. And then again when Zayn stayed over the other night. And then when he failed to run even a quarter of Liam and Harry’s usual route and he ended up just laying down on a park, watching as they did squats and pushups and all sorts of exercises because they were healthy shits and they thought it would motivate Niall to join them. It didn’t, but he didn’t mind looking at them even if it made him feel a little worse about himself.

Niall bit on a nail as he watched new people step into the tube, filling it up to the point that he could barely see the other wall from where he sat. He sighed, looking at his nails, painted a soft blue thanks to Harry. Maybe he shouldn’t bite his nails then, he told himself, counting off the seconds before his stop.

“Heyo!” said Niall, making them all look up from the sheet they were laying on. He smiled as he crouched down to press a kiss on Harry smile.

He hugged Liam, flinching as he shifted his weight because “my knee my knee my knee.”

“Shit,” said Liam, letting Niall move around as he sat better. “You okay?”

“S’okay,” said Niall, patting his shoulder a little. “S’just a bit fidgety with the cold. No big deal.”

“You’re such a grandda sometimes,” said Zayn, laughing a little as Niall evaded his kiss. “I mean, you are, though! You knee’s bad when it’s cold. Always giving us more food than we need.”

“If you don’t want these crisps, I’ll just take them and not give you anything ever again.”

“No, I wasn’t complaining,” he said, tilting his head up and kissing him. Niall sighed out into the kiss, closing his eyes at the feeling of his warm hands against his cold face. He raised himself to kiss him better, throwing his arms around his neck.

“Okay, okay, stop monopolizing him,” Louis voice rang out.

Niall ended the kiss, laughing against Zayn’s shoulder and rolling his eyes.

“He’s not monopolizing me,” he huffed out.

“How come I haven’t gotten a hug, then?” he smirked.

Niall laughed, moving to his side so he could properly hug Louis.

“You should get that checked out,” said Louis, placing his hand over his knees.

Niall frowned. “I know, I know.”

“And that outfit too.”

“Yeah, just check out this double denim,” said Niall, striking a few poses to show off the jean jacket he’d worn at the last minute. “Don’t you like it?”

Louis looked at him up and down, chuckling to himself. “Yeah, Niall, love it. You’re so much cooler than me now.”

“Prick,” he smiled, shoving him shoulder away.

Louis rolled his eyes, grabbing another bag of crisps and continuing a conversation with Zayn and Liam. Niall turned to look at Harry, unable to stop himself from reflecting the same smile he was giving him.

“Hey,” he said, moving a bit closer to him.

“Hey again,” he smiled.

“Yeah, hey.”

“I like your shirt,” smirked Harry.

Niall looked down to him shirt, looking at the upside-downsy logo and oh- “S’yours then?”

Harry huffed out a small laugh as he wrapped an arm around him. “I just think you look real good in that shirt.”

“Possessive little shit,” he laughed, letting him pull him in for a kiss.

He let him open his lips a little, laughing a little as his cold hands went to his waist. He broke the kiss, giggling as he hid his face on his neck.

“Stop it. Your hands are cold,” he laughed, trying to push his hands away.

“Yeah?”

Next thing he knew, his hands were cupping his face and, fuck, they were so cold. Harry laughed as he screamed, and honestly, he was such a dick.

He was just about to tell him that when another scream leapt out from beside them, as Liam fell properly to the ground with Louis on top of him.

“What the-”

Liam laughed, screaming again as Louis bit down on his neck.

“Alright, that’s enough you two,” said Zayn, placing a hand on Louis’ shoulders to pull him away. “You’re going to hurt each other and-”

“Dickhead! Stop pinching me nipples!” screamed Louis.

“Get off then!” screamed Liam, trying but failing to hit him with his legs.

“Oh God” said Louis, scrunching up his face as he sat up over Liam, hands over his own chest. “This is just the most horrible pain I’ve ever had. Like, it felt like I was just about to fucking die.”

“What about that time you dislocated your shoulder as a kid?” asked Harry, laying down on the blanket as he looked up at them.

Louis sent him a bright smile, hopping off from where he was sat over Liam’s legs.

Niall laughed as Liam tried to place his feet over Harry’s thighs, only to have him keep shoving them away.

“Be nice,” muttered Zayn, taking his hand away from where it’d been running through his hair.

“I’m very nice,” said Harry, sitting up and letting Liam place his feet on him.

Niall laid beside him. “Oh, I think they’re about to start,” he muttered.

And, indeed, not even half a minute later, the fireworks started lighting up the sky over them.

He laid his head on Zayn’s lap, his hand continuing to brush his hair from time to time. Liam laid down beside him, turning around to see the fireworks better, but still letting Niall wrap an arm around his with all his "oh, that’s pretty, isn’t it?"s. He wasn’t sure if his legs were over Louis or Harry, nor whose hands were laying over his shoes, but he didn’t feel the need to look down and see.

He bit his tongue, not wanting to ruin the moment right in front of him.

“Okay?” asked Liam, frowning a little as he looked at him.

“Yeah,” smiled out Niall.

Liam hummed a little, moving closer to him and bringing one of his hands to his lips. Niall smiled as another firework lit up above them.

 

Niall looked up as Liam entered the flat, closing the door quickly behind him. He looked at the others, who were too engrossed with their books or laptops as they wrote away. Liam set the bag on the floor and started pacing around the room, his hands on his hair.

“Liam, babe, could you stop?” asked Zayn, not looking up from where he was making some plans for his class portfolio. “You’re making me anxious.”

“ _You’re_ making me anxious.”

Zayn sighed, setting his pen on the table and looking up at Liam, frowning a little. Niall knew he hadn’t missed the way Liam’s eyes were a little red. Liam just rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he looked at them.

“Let’s go out.”

They all looked at him.

“It’s a Tuesday” said Louis, returning to his book, as if that solved everything.

“So? We’ve done it before,” said Liam, nodding and shrugging a little. “Let’s go out. I want to go clubbing.”

“Babe, what’s up?” asked Zayn, reaching for his leg.

Liam shook the hand away, moving to the other side of the table while he shook his head. “Nothing’s up. I just want to go out because I will go insane if I end up sitting here and can’t we just go out and get pissed? C’mon, it's more fun and it’s not as if you’re really studying.”

“I’ll go out with you if you want,” said Niall, setting his laptop beside him on the sofa. “I’m finishing a paper right now, but I’ll go out with you in about an hour if you want?”

Liam took a deep breath, taking a hand to his hair as he bit his lower lip.

Harry sat up from his chair, closing the book. “Let’s go out for a run, Li. In the meantime.”

“I’m not wearing running clothes, though,” he said.

“You’re already wearing your trainers and I think you’ll fit into some of my clothes,” he said, leading him towards his room. “I’ll even let you choose whichever route you want to pick.”

“But I- Fine, but we’re all going out when we’re back,” he said, stopping by his door and crossing his arms as he looked at them all.

“If I finish these plans while you go running, I’ll go out with you. So take that into consideration when you’re picking your route,” said Zayn, not looking up from the paper where he was making some type of marks.

“Fuck,” muttered Harry, looking at Niall with wide-eyes. He chuckled as Harry made an ‘abort, abort’ signal.

Louis popped out his earbuds as Liam looked at him. “Love, I can’t afford to go out tonight unless I want to become a hermit this weekend.”

Liam frowned a little. “So? Don’t go out this weekend and study then.”

“Did you even hear what I said?” said Louis, sitting up straighter. “I can’t go out tonight. I’ve got two tests next week and I’ve got to work tomorrow morning.”

“Yes, alright,” said Liam, all frowns. “But maybe instead of fooling around for hours doing nothing tomorrow after work, like I know it’s your plan, you can study then and come out with me tonight.”

“Okay, what has gotten into you?!”

Niall hurried to go up and place a hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Hey, why don’t you two go running and why doesn’t Louis consider the possibility of going out while you do that? C’mon, babe.”

Liam looked at them both, at Niall’s little frown and the way Louis replaced his earbuds once more. He nodded, crossing over to Harry’s room.

Niall sat down on the bed beside Liam, wrapping an arm around him.

“Where do you want to go clubbing?”

“Anywhere,” Liam shrugged. A beat later. “Infinity would be cool, though.”

Niall scrunched up his face, because of course he had to pick one of the shittiest ones nearby. He’d never wanted to spent more than five minutes in it and it was called Infinity. Horrible. He huffed out a little laugh as he pressed a kiss on Liam’s forehead. “F’course, whatever you want.”

Liam nodded a little, taking a pair of joggers from Harry. “Okay, let me put this on and let’s go,” he said, moving to the attached bathroom.

Niall returned to the bedroom, his laptop in hand. He sat in his bed, raising his eyebrows as Harry fit his head through his shirt.

“Are you sure you want to wear yellow shorts with this weather, love?”

Harry plopped down beside him, biting his thigh a little before looking up at him. “It’s either I wear a shirt or I wear joggers. I can’t please everyone, Ni.”

Niall rolled his eyes. “Well, if those are the options, good for you for wearing a shirt. You’ll catch pneumonia if you don’t.”

“Such a grandda.” Harry hummed, hiding his face on the space between his thigh and the bed. “If I’m running now and then going out, how bad of an idea you think it is to miss Con Law tomorrow morning?”

Niall ran a hand through his hair. “He basically just reads of the book anyway, doesn’t he?”

Harry bit down a little of his thigh again. “You’re supposed to be the good influence here.”

Niall smiled, reopening his word doc as Liam waited next to Harry, now with a pair of his joggers. He smiled as Harry kissed his cheek before hopping off the bed, leaving him in peace to finish up his paper on immigration policies.

Next thing he knew, there was a sweaty Harry beside him on the bed. He looked at where he’d left his laptop beside him and blinked. He was literally supposed to only close his eyes for a few seconds as a celebration of finishing his essay.

“What time’s it?”

Harry took a deep breath. “Almost nine. I was supposed to wake you up so we could start getting ready, but I’m so tired.”

“Ran a lot?” he asked, taking a hand to his hair. It was sweaty and gross, but it made him smile so… The things he did for this one, really.

“Too much. Too quickly,” he replied, opening his eyes for a bit. “I blame Zayn, for telling him he needed to finish his plans first and making him run too much.”

“Well, he didn’t _make_ him.”

“He made him do it,” Harry repeated, pushing himself off the bed. “I should shower. I told Liam he could use my bathroom so I guess I’ll just use Louis’ instead of waiting.”

“You should. You stink,” he smiled, sitting down and crossing his legs beneath him. He sighed. “Is Liam okay?”

Harry sighed, shrugging a little. “Ask Zayn. If someone knows, it’s him.”

Niall nodded, taking his laptop as Harry started looking through his clothes. He made sure that his paper was genuinely finished before standing up from the bed.

He dragged a chair to sit beside Zayn, where he was placing his papers in his binder as he checked off the order. He propped his head on his hand, looking at him as he frowned a little while he counted some papers.

“What’s happening, babe?”

“Can you read over my essay? Just in the sense of typos and syntax and stuff, because it needs to be uploaded by midnight and I’m going out with Liam,” he added, pouting a little even if he already knew Zayn was going to drag the laptop over to himself. “You coming?”

He fixed his glasses as he sat down. “I’ll go out with you, but I’m just going to keep an eye on Liam. I’ve got to shadow tomorrow morning and then I've got class, so please don’t make me stay up until late.”

Niall smiled, leaning forward and tilting his head to kiss him. He hummed as he rested his hands on his thighs, slowly moving them up as he leaned more and more towards him.

“Do you want me to read this over or not?” Zayn said, breaking away from the kiss. He covered one of his hands, taking it up to his lips.

“Yeah, it’s just that the glasses are distracting,” he smiled, standing up and placing a kiss in his forehead. “I’ll go annoy Lou for something to wear in the meantime, though.”

He felt his gaze on him as he walked away, just as he felt everyone’s gaze on them later in the night.

_“Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad!”_

Seeing as they were the only two people on the dancefloor, absolutely hitting it to Call Me Maybe, it was pretty clear that they were easily visible for the few people in this shitty club. He wouldn't blame them if they were staring at them.

_“I missed you so bad! I missed you so, so bad!”_

Either way, there were worse things than singing along with a jumping and dancing Liam, even if he wasn’t drunk enough for this. He signaled towards the bar, Liam’s eyes growing wide.

“Let’s do shots!” said Liam, grabbing his arm as he followed him towards the bar.

Niall hummed a little, looking at him up and down. “Maybe not shots.”

“Just one shot,” argued Liam, making him stop in his tracks and pouting a little.

He frowned. “Like, one shot for the two of us?”

“No, one shot of one thing. No mixing alcohols,” said Liam, rolling his eyes. “‘Cause, like, that’s a rule, right? Anyway, how ridiculous is that drinking has rules?”

Niall sighed, taking Liam by the hand again and leading him towards the bar. He signaled down the sole bartender, trying to avoid Liam from trying to hop on the bar. Because, really, what the fuck?

“We want two tequila shots,” said Liam, smiling at the bartender.

“No, don’t give us two tequila shots.”

“Don’t listen to him. Listen to me.”

“No, _don’t_ -” Niall sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Fine, give us two 151 shots and then a rum and coke for me? It’s better, love, trust me,” he added to Liam.

“Oh, that one actually really fucks me up, that’s great,” he said.

Bless the poor, confused bartender. He probably had better things to do than any of this on a Tuesday night. At least he was quick about it.

“How do you think people went like, ‘oh, let’s keep this plant rotting and rotting and then drink it to see what happens’?” Liam asked, slowly unfurling his face from the disgusted expression.

“What?” laughed Niall.

“Rum’s from like a plant, I think,” frowned Liam, leaning against the bar and crossing his arms. “Well, whoever thought about it, though, I’m very glad they did. What would we do without rum?”

“Drink any other forms of alcohol,” said Niall, smiling at the bartender with his drink.

Liam eyed it, pouting a little. “Why can’t I have one of those too?”

“Cause I love you and I don’t want you to end up vom’ing over this place’s toilet,” said Niall, winking a little at Liam’s wide eyes.

“If I marry you and become Irish too, would that also make me immune to alcohol?” asked Liam, frowning a little. Niall rolled his eyes, paying for their drinks. Liam’s arms wrapped themselves around him, placing his head on his shoulder. “Because everyone says I’m a bit of a lightweight and I don’t always like it.”

“I thought you wanted to get drunk tonight,” pointed out Niall, smiling down at him. “You’re drunk already.”

“Well, yes, tonight it’s a good thing. Though I want to be drunk _er_ ,” said Liam, putting emphasis on the inflection at the end.

Niall petted Liam’s head, smiling at the bartender as he returned. “Let’s go see the others before we drink something else.”

“Oh, let’s!” Liam’s face lit up, quickly grabbing his hand and pulling his towards him. Niall stumbled a little, drinking from his glass to stop it from spilling.

Niall stumbled into Harry, letting go of Liam as Harry’s hands steadied him by the waist.

“Alright?” he asked, smiling as Niall threw an arm around his neck and pulled him down to kiss him.

“Yeah,” he said, going up to kiss him again but then Louis laughed out loudly at something and he felt himself laughing too, hiding his face on Harry’s chest. He played with the buttons right beside his face, running his fingers by them as he felt Harry’s hand resting on his lower back.

He didn’t know how long they stayed like that, slightly swaying to Nicki Minaj, of all artists, but he didn’t care. He just smiled up at Harry, even more when he leaned down to kiss him once more. He sighed into the kiss.

“Booooo!” rang out Louis’ and Liam’s voice. “Ew!”

“What is this indecency?!” added Louis.

Niall and Harry laughed. Niall took a bit of his drink, taking in Zayn’s smile from where he was sat in the corner of the table, his eyes looking heavy but so full of feeling. Harry was faster than him, stepping towards him and kissing him with that mischievous smile Niall hated so much.

He watched on as Zayn covered Harry’s hands with his own, kissing him with a softness Niall didn’t know what to think about.

Maybe he wasn’t as immune to alcohol as Liam had thought. Because it wasn’t even midnight on a shitty student club, but his head was all light and his chest felt just… Whatever the feeling was, it felt bigger than a word could ever describe. Maybe he’d have to make up his own word for this type of feeling. Niall smiled at them, taking a sip of his drink before placing his hands on Zayn’s shoulder.

Harry whined a little as he redirected the kiss towards him, so he laid a hand over his as he kissed Zayn.

“Ugh, I told you they’d end up making out if you said anything,” said Liam, making Zayn laugh against Niall. He smiled, hiding his face on Zayn’s neck and feeling Harry's hands on his back. “This is the fucking worst.”

“C’mon, have a little more sympathy, Li,” said Louis.

"The fucking wooorst!"

"Okay, this kinda sucks, yeah."

Niall smiled as Harry stepped towards Louis, giving him an easy kiss that made his frown disappear. Louis smiled, pushing him away a little and rolling his eyes. “That doesn’t mean I’m withdrawing my objection.”

“Oh, lawyer terms, where you learn that?”

“Wait a second!”

The four of them turned to look at Liam, who had placed his hands on the table as he looked at the four of them, a little scrunch between his eyebrows.

“Yes, Li?” smiled Niall.

Liam’s eyes narrowed down on Harry. “Harry, so you mean to tell me that you’re kissing everyone here except me?” Liam raised his eyebrows, slowly opening his mouth until scoffing a little. “Alright, I see how it is then.”

Niall looked at his drink, focusing on the line halfway down the cup. Might as well just finish it before it ran warm. He looked to his side at the sound of Liam’s screams, looking on as Harry pressed Liam against the wall and made him laugh louder.

“C’mon, boys are gross!” screamed Liam, laughing as Harry hid his face on his neck. “Get off!”

“Is he okay?” asked Louis, leaning a little towards Zayn and him.

Zayn shrugged, sighing a little. He patted Niall’s thigh. “C’mon, babe, get off me.”

Niall looked at him, frowning a little. Zayn held him by the waist, slipping down from underneath him and making him fall just slightly against the chair. Oh. Huh.

“If Liam wants to pretend nothing’s wrong, let him,” shrugged Zayn, taking out a box of cigs out of his pocket. “Be back in a bit,” he added, looking at Niall and pressing a kiss that made him stop frowning. He messed up Louis’ hair before leaving, making him frown.

“Oh, no!” mocked Harry, stepping back a bit from Liam. “Fall in love? How horrible!”

“It’s the worst fucking thing apparently,” said Liam, frowning at Harry. “Love’s the fucking worst.”

“I don't think so. I quite like it,” said Harry, glancing to the table quickly. 

"Well, you're wrong!"

“Harry, c’mon, boy,” said Louis, patting the seat beside him as Harry tried to give Liam another kiss on his cheek. Niall wasn’t sure if he was screaming or laughing.

“Lay off him, c’mon,” said Niall, throwing him a warning look from the rim of the cup.

Harry sighed a little, softening his hold on Liam and sitting down on the chair between them. Niall drank the last of his drink and, okay, that was stronger that he’d thought. He blinked, noticing Liam’s stare and tilted head.

“We should get that drink, what’sitsname?” Liam said, frowning a little.

“Yes, that one,” chuckled Niall.

Harry perked up on his seat. “The, um, fuck… The one with that Ben bloke and the face.”

“Yes!” said Liam, placing his hands on the table. “Let’s have that one.”

“I think you’ve both had enough for the night,” said Louis, wrapping his hand around Liam’s shoulders.

Liam frowned, shaking his hand off. “It’s not as if you’re the boss of me, or have I told you otherwise?”

Harry laughed, slapping a hand over his mouth. Niall couldn’t stop himself smiling, even more when Louis frowned at him.

“I don’t have to be the boss of you to tell you that I think you’ve drunk enough already unless you want to be sick,” said Louis, frowning deeper when Liam stepped away to wrap his arms around Harry.

“You don’t have to take care of me.”

“Oh, tell him, Liam!” laughed Harry. “Tell him how it is.”

“You’re not even licensed!” added Liam, raising an arm in disbelief.

Niall stood up from his chair, placing his hands on both of their shoulders.

Louis frowned, raising his voice. “Licensed at what, Liam?!”

Liam scoffed, “I don’t know. Isn’t that something _you_ should know?”

“Alright, alright, let’s settle down,” Niall said, laughing a little as they both redirected their frowns toward him. He threw Harry a look. “Li, babe, why don’t you and Harry go and order us some of whatever you want is? I’ll meet you there.”

Louis rolled his eyes, his hand being slapped away by Liam as he tried to pinch his nipple.

“See ya,” he said, sticking his tongue out as he walked away with Harry, throwing peace signs in their direction.

Niall threw his arms around him, closing his eyes when Louis’ hand started running up and down his back. “Just relax a little,” he said, humming against Louis’ shoulder. “Liam’s old enough to make his own decisions.”

“Stupid decisions.”

“But his own, at the end of the day,” said Niall.

“Yeah, I know.” Louis sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"I'll take care of him, don't worry," he muttered.

Louis laughed, eyes going all small and cute. “When did I even become the responsible one in the friend group, anyway?”

“I thought I was the responsible one,” pouted Niall, placing his hands on his thighs.

Louis laughed again, throwing his head back. “That’s a good one, love. But I guess if Liam’s not the most responsible and Zayn’s being prissy, I’ll have to step it up.” Niall smiled, looking as Louis’ eyes softened up. He knew his own were the same way, a pure reaction to the way Louis kissed his cheek.

Louis scrunched up his nose. “Think I’ll join up Zayn for a bit of a smoke, actually,” he said, pushing his hands away from his thighs as he stood up. “It’s not as if we’re going to lose our table tonight.”

Niall looked around the empty club, laughing a little and nodding as he walked towards Liam and Harry.

Niall had no idea what it was that they had ordered while he’d been gone, but it was absolutely fabulous the third time around. Maybe he should rethink his aversion to artificially colored liqueurs. And maybe it was a shitty club, but the booze was pretty good and cheap, so maybe it wasn’t _that_ shitty. Either way, it led him to be all alone on a dark corner with Harry, Liam having left a while back to look for Louis because he wanted to give Harry and Niall some alone time.

Which wasn’t necessary, but he was absolutely not going to complain now that Harry had him pressed down against the wall, his lips slowly moving down his neck. He whimpered as Harry started to bite down on the spot where he liked to hide his face so much.

“What is with you and Zayn?” he groaned, looking up at the ceiling. “You and your slow arses.”

“He does this to you, too?” he mumbled. He kissed the pulse point below his ear. 

“Nevermind what he does,” he said, shutting his eyes closed. “Just kiss me, please.”

"At least you said please," he said as he complied. He was smiling, though, as his two hands pinned his hips against the wall and away from him. He hated him so fucking much, he thought with a sigh. It was a miracle that he hadn’t killed Harry or Zayn so far.

He hooked his fingers around his belt loops, trying to pull him in before quickly retrieving his hands.

“Wait, wait, waitwaitwait,” he said, moving his hands to cup his face.

“What’s wrong?”

He wanted to kiss the little scrunch of skin between his eyebrows away. Instead Niall stepped back, basically hitting himself with the wall.

“Hey, hey,” he said, trying to make Harry look at him. “Hey.”

“Hey,” frowned Harry.

Niall looked at him, at his little frown and his eyes and the way his smile vanished a little more with every second, but he wanted to make sure. He needed to make sure. He placed his hands on his shoulders, looking into his eyes.

“You’re sure about this? About, like, kissing me?”

His frown deepened. “We’ve kissed many times before.”

"Well, yeah, but like this, I mean,” he said, nodding a little and looking down. His boots were nicer than him. Why did he have better boots than him?

“Nevermind about my boots,” he said, huffing out a little and rolling his eyes. Oh. Oops. “Why’s this an issue now?”

He blinked, looking back at him. “’Cause.” He shrugged. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable. D’you want...”

Harry rolled his eyes. He smiled, murmuring something sounding like an "idiot."

“Just don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Niall repeated, frowning a little.

“Okay. Thank you for this, especially since you’re drunk-”

“I’m not,” he mumbled out.

“But you need to trust me and let me do whatever I feel comfortable doing, yeah? Right now, I want to do this, just this, so I am,” said Harry, his eyes all soft at him. “Do you trust me?”

“I…” he said, taking a deep breath as Harry’s eyes burned him. He nodded faintly, his voice catching on his “Of course I do.”

“Then, thank you for making sure, but you need trust me on this,” he muttered, pressing a kiss on his jaw. “Please trust me on this.”

Niall nodded, closing his eyes. “I will. I do. I’m sorry,” he said, taking a step back and stumbling a little against the wall. “Sorry.”

Harry wrapped his arms around him, steadying him. Niall opened his eyes as another hand went up to his shoulder.

Zayn looked at him, frowning as he looked at them up and down. Niall smiled, ‘cause Zayn was here and that was great, he was so great. He took his face into his hands and tried to kiss his frown away.

“You two alright?” he asked, smiling briefly at Niall before focusing his worried glance in Harry. He slowly let go of Niall, trying to button up Harry’s shirt a little bit more.

“Don’t constrain me,” he said, whining a little as he pushed the hands away. “Don’t.”

Zayn rolled his eyes. “Fine, but if you catch pneumonia while we’re outside, I’m not taking care of you, babe. We’re leaving, c’mon.”

“I’ll take care of you,” smiled Niall, taking Harry’s hands into his as he smiled too. “Also, we can’t leave right now, I really gotta go to the loo for a bit.”

Zayn took a deep breath, grabbing Harry's hands. “Fine, Louis isn’t answering me texts on where he ran away with Liam anyway, so we’re not leaving in this exact moment.”

Niall winked, stepping away from them and throwing finger guns at him. “Got it. See you at the table, then.”

He blinked, looking at the three steps below his feet. His feet seemed to step on them perfectly and, truth be told, he was not exactly sure how he’d done it. He blinked, looking around the graffiti’d wooden stalls and finally at himself at one of mirrors by the wall.

He blinked again, looking how his reflection took his hands to his hair. Okay, fuck, he was definitely a lot drunker than he’d thought. He turned around at the sound of a noise behind him, frowning as he examined the scene.

Alright, so to summarize. He was drunk, on a shitty club, on a Tuesday night, seeing two of his friends positively eating each other faces. He felt his head tilting and tilting. Louis’ arse really _was_ great, now that he looked at it well. He could totally get why Liam was gripping it like that. Looked nice.

He raised his eyebrows, watching as a hand went up beneath Liam’s football jersey and made him whimper out.

Niall blinked, looking away.

Right.

He really needed to piss. And he really needed to do it before they realized he was right behind them, because that would be too awkward. He tried not to laugh as he closed a stall’s door behind him, leaning against it. Jesusmaryandjoseph, what had his life come to?

He didn’t have to wait much until they seemed to have moved it into another stall, if the direction of the amount of noise seemed to be any indication. He needed to get out, because he wasn’t sure of many things, but he was pretty certain that he would end up properly turned on if he stayed here and that was just… Well, that was just too weird to think about right now.

He just needed to focus on how in the hell he was washing his hands. The rip from the towel dispenser roared across the restroom, making his eyes grow wide.

One of the stalls rattled a little, followed by a moan. “Quiet _down_ , Liam.”

He blinked at his reflection as a muffled whine came out of one of the stalls behind him. He held his breath, placing the paper towel on the bin slowly. He really needed to get out of here.

He somehow must’ve gotten down those steps safely, because next thing he knew he was walking towards Harry and Zayn, the both of them sitting down by the table they’d all been at.

“Hey, you,” he said, closing his eyes as Zayn’s hand came to rest on his lower back. He breathed in, only scrunching his nose a little at the smell of cigarettes on his shirt. He still smelled nice, though, he noticed as he pressed a kiss on his clavicle. How was he still smelling nice after all this time?

“Hey, there,” he said, running his hands through his hair as he looked up. “Alright?”

“Quite alright, yeah. Missed you,” Niall added, hiding his face once again on his shaking chest and breathing him in.

“I’ve been here all along, babe.”

“What about me?”

Niall smiled. “Who’s that speaking, Zayn?”

Zayn’s chest shook a little with his low laughter. “Dunno. Don’t hear anything.”

“Heyyyyyyy.”

Niall smiled wider at the sight of Harry’s pout, so he really had no other choice than to loosen himself from Zayn enough to go and press a kiss on his lips. “Of course I missed you too. Of course.”

Zayn ruffled Harry’s hair before pressing a kiss to his forehead, finally making him smile a little.

Harry sighed, resting his head on his hands. “Where is Louis anyway?”

“We’re not enough for you?” smirked Zayn, raising an eyebrow.

Harry’s eyes grew wide. “No! F’course not! I just meant that it really is time to leave this shithole, even if it’s for home. I’m tired. Wanna take of this shirt and sleep.”

Zayn sighed too, rolling his eyes a little. “I’ve tried texting him, but he won’t answer.”

Niall looked at his nails. He should paint them again if he wanted to keep on trying to stop biting them. Maybe he could ask Harry to do it for him tomorrow.

“Just spam his phone,” Harry said, taking out his own phone. “That’s what he does to me when he’s looking for me, even if we’re just at Tesco. Some Tescos are labyrinths. Time isn’t real in them.”

“Fuck, that’s true,” said Niall, blinking for a few seconds before taking out his own phone. “Yeah, I’m going to take out mine, because Zayn’ll take too long with that pebble over here,” said Niall, taking one look at the Nokia and at Zayn’s serious face.

Harry and him laughed. He looked down to his phone, managing to open Louis’ texts on the third try and- He sighed. This was going to be harder than it looked, he realized with another blink that did nothing to clarify the keyboard in front of him. At least the intention was quantity over quality.

Thankfully, the two of them appeared eventually. Niall blinked as Liam wrapped his arms around Harry and watched as Louis placed his hands on his hips.

“A sixty-seven messages,” said Louis, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the three of them. “Sixty! Seven! Do you know how rude this is?!”

“You do the exact same thing to me, c’mon,” said Harry, taking a hand to Louis' hair.

“That doesn’t mean it’s not rude!”

“Where even were you?” said Zayn, finally shrugging on his jacket.

“Where I told you we’d be. In the bathroom,” said Louis, shrugging a little. “Did you want me to text you from the loo?”

Zayn looked between Louis and Niall, finally shrugging a little and focusing on forcing Harry to put on his jacket.

Louis sighed, wrapping an arm to pull Liam towards him and grabbing Niall’s hands with another. “C’mon, loves, let’s walk home.”

Niall frowned as the wind hit his face outside. It felt like midnight. It was probably around midnight, he thought to himself, placing his hand over where Louis’ hand rested on his waist and pulled him towards him. It made walking a little bit weird, but it was nice.

“Had fun tonight, love?” asked Louis.

Louis looked away briefly as Liam let go of his other hand, running to join Harry and Zayn in front of them. Liam tried to hug Harry as he walked, both arms around him, and it looked a bit funny from the way he was also holding Zayn’s hand.

They probably made a real odd group right now.

Louis hummed beside him, tightening his hold on his waist.

“Yeah,” mumbled Niall, tilting his head a bit as he watched how the three of them walked. “S’just a bit weird.”

“What’s weird?” asked Louis.

“Everything? Uni? Us? Maths, that’s also very, very weird. Space?! The universe is so great, but so, so weird. We don’t, like, we don’t understand anything Louis. Everything is so confusing, like.”

Louis laughed. He looked nice when he did that. There were songs about those types of laughter. He wasn’t sure which ones, but he was sure there were some that went like that. 

“Well, maybe everything will make more sense tomorrow morning,” said Louis, bringing him back to reality and pulling him along as they turned on a corner. “It’ll all make more sense when you’re not drunk or hungover, I’m sure.”

Niall frowned. “I’m not _drunk._ ”

“No?”

“No,” he said, nodding a little.

“Are you sure about that?” asked Louis, huffing out a little laugh.

Niall pushed him away. “No. And I don’t get hungover either. I’m Irish. We’re not weak like you.”

“Right, how could I possibly forgotten? Forgive me?”

Which, turns out, hugging Louis and letting him run his hands through his hair wasn’t the worst thing in the world, even if it made walking weird. He smiled as Louis closed the building door behind him. Harry stumbled on the stairs in front of them, taking Liam with him and making Zayn swear out loudly.

“See?” said Niall, pointing at him while still holding Louis’ hand. “I’m not _that_ drunk.”

Louis laughed, pulling him along as he helped Harry and Liam get up.

There was something about the five of them, he thought. There was something about the five of them that he needed to figure out. He didn’t know what it was, hence why he needed to figure it out. Because there was something going on, he was sure of it. He just needed to figure out what it was. Something that wasn’t the fact that apparently Zayn had a weak stomach, because he’d just returned from Louis’ bathroom muttering his ‘nope’s not much after Liam promptly announced that he needed to threw up. He should probably do something about that, though.

“You’re not going to do nothing about anything at this hour, c’mon,” said Zayn, taking his hand and leading him to his room. Well, no, not his, Harry’s.

“But… Liam,” he said, frowning a little as Zayn closed the door behind him.

“Louis’ got him. He’ll take care of him, don’t worry,” said Zayn, walking to the bed where Harry was already laying facedown in his pants. “You’re not going to throw up on me, are you?”

He frowned. “No? I’m not drunk. Either way, I’m-”

“You’re Irish, so I’ve heard,” said Zayn, shaking Harry’s shoulder.

"So, if Louis is taking care of Liam, are you going to take care of us then?"

Zayn took a deep breath, looking at the ceiling as Harry whined something, his voice all muffled by the duvet. Niall looked up, but he didn't see what was the big deal about the ceiling. 

"Harry, I'm not fucking around, you're taking the whole bed. Move," he said, pushing him a bit. Niall frowned at him, 'cause that was rude of him, only to have Zayn roll his eyes at him. "F'course I'll take care of you, babe, just try to follow my instructions, yeah?"

Next thing he knew, he was wearing another oversized shirt of Harry’s and laying between them, the two of them quite asleep from the looks of it. Well, Zayn wasn’t snoring, so he was still fair game.

Niall poked Zayn on the shoulder.

“Zayn, do you think there’s something weird about the five of us?”

He took a deep breath. “Just the fact that there’s going to be four of us if you don’t shut the fuck up.”

Niall frowned a little. He wasn’t sure if he’d meant that he’d leave or that he’d kill him, but maybe he should at least close his eyes, just in case.

 

Niall forced his eyes shut, turning around and hiding his face on the side of someone’s chest. Harry’s, if the whining noises were any indication of it.

“And then I got _off_ the tube, walked to the hospital, clocked _in_ -” The curtains screeched as they were forced open. “And the mother of the first kid I had to help didn’t seem to understand that I was a _student_ and couldn’t _help_ that much-” Another screech.

“Louis,” whined out Harry. Niall threw a leg over him, hiding his face closer to the space between his body and the mattress.

“And it’s not like I _like_ not being able to do much anyway-”

“Shut up,” Niall said, dragging out the syllables.

“But, skipping ahead, I come here tired after five hours of work and with lots and lots of studying to do now,” Louis’ voice rang out. “And you three are still sleeping!”

“Louis, please, I’m injured,” moaned Harry, taking his arm out from below Niall. "Keep it down."

Niall sighed out, dragging himself up the bed and hiding his face on a pillow. It smelled faintly of cigarettes, the weird cotton smell from the washers underneath it. Niall didn’t want to think about it. He felt the mattress dip down a bit, the gravity pulling him closer to Harry.

“Can’t you be nice when I’m in pain?” mumbled out Harry.

“You’re not injured, my love. You’re hungover,” said Louis, his voice considerably softer as he laughed. "Foolish boy."

Harry hummed. Niall opened an eye, watching as Louis straddle Harry as they snogged. Harry smiled, placing a hand over Louis’ as it cupped his face. He closed his eyes, turning his face towards the pillow, but not soon enough for Louis not to notice him.

He barely had time to register everything going on before he felt a hand in his hair, a quick kiss on his shoulder.

Niall felt the mattress dip down again. He turned, frowning as he looked around the room a little.

“Wait, where’s Zayn?”

“Out,” said Louis, standing beside the bed. He smiled at him before all the light forced Niall to close his eyes once more. “As much as he hates it, he’s a productive member of society and had to do things. Unlike you two.”

“Rude,” muttered Harry.

“There’s water and paracetamol on the bedside table for you two,” said Louis, his voice softer as he walked away from the bed. “It’s past noon, you idiots. Get up, won’t you? I’ll be in the kitchen.”

Next time Niall opened his eyes, the room was empty and way too bright. He sighed, throwing his legs over the edge and taking what Louis had left for him in the bedstand. He checked his phone, grimacing both at the brightness and the hour on screen.

He sighed again.

Louis looked at him when he stepped out the room, placing a large spoon on the countertops before going to him.

“How are you feeling, love?”

Niall frowned, humming a little as he hooked his head over his shoulder. “Weird. Confused.”

Louis huffed out a small laugh. “Will you do me a favor and check on Liam for me while I finish up cooking? He’s still in bed.”

Niall nodded, crossing to the other room. He stepped around the mess inside the room, finally reaching the bed and plopping beside Liam. He whined, turning to the wall. Niall sighed, propping himself up in his elbows as he looked at Liam.

“Liam, babe,” he whispered, pressing closer to him. “I think Louis could possibly murder me if you don’t wake up and I don’t want to test him.”

Liam sighed, turning around to face him. Niall hummed, running a hand through his hair even if it made his eyes close for a few seconds from time to time.

“Liam, babe,” he repeated, nudging his arm a little. “C’mon.”

“Nothing makes sense,” said Liam with a little sigh. He sat up a little, looking around the room with his confused eyes and accepting the painkiller and glass of water from Niall. "What is life?"

Niall smiled, humming a few bars of that what is love song, waiting for Liam to smile. He didn't, so tied their free hands together. He bit his lower lip. “Louis is making breakfast for us. Or lunch. Or brunch.”

Liam frowned, shaking his head. “I'd get sick.”

“Maybe some toast then? You gotta eat something, love,” he said, only to have Liam shrug at him. Niall took a deep breath, tightening his hold on his hand as examined his state. “We don’t have to talk about if you don’t want to, but is everything okay?”

Liam looked at him, frowning more. “What d’you mean?”

Niall shrugged. “You worried me a bit last night.”

Liam’s frown deepened as he climbed over Niall to stand up, taking a tentative step away from the bed. “Don’t be,” he said, shrugging a little and stepping away towards the bathroom.

Niall sighed, pushing himself off the bed and going off to sit beside Harry on the table. He rested head on his hands as he looked at Louis finishing around in the kitchen. He watched as Liam sat on his other side, resting his head over the table. Zayn came into the flat, his bookbag in hand and wearing a colorful button-up he was certain was Harry’s, pressing a kiss on everyone's cheeks.

He focused on the plate of food in front of him, determined not to be the first one to broach the subject of last night. He drank from his coffee.

“So,” said Liam, placing the nibbled piece of toast on his place. He cleared his throat. Niall looked up from his almost empty plate. Liam drank a bit of his tea, focusing on placing the cup over the table. “Do you happen to know any other speed dating events happening soon?”

Niall placed a hand over Liam’s thigh, who seemed determined on stabbing a piece of potato with his fork. “Babe,” he said.

“Li, why-”

Liam shrugged, stabbing another potato. “Well, it worked out for you three. Maybe I’ll, like, find something that finally works out for me. ‘Cause, um, well, turns out this last relationship has been shit for a while and enough’s enough, apparently.”

Another stab at a potato.

Niall could relate, even if it wasn’t the poor potato’s fault. He just kept his hands on his thighs as he dragged his chair so that Liam could lay his head on his shoulder and ignore all the "no, you’re not allowed to date anytime soon"s and "not even hook up, no"s. The words would just have to come later, when the world was quieter and less confusing.

 

“You know how to the game goes,” sang out Bressie as he returned to their table, two pints in hand.

Niall smiled, sticking out his tongue as he looked up at his tall figure. “I’m just putting it on silent.”

“Right,” he said, sitting down beside him. “Just know that if you don’t place it in the middle of the table in ten seconds, you’re getting the next round.”

“The next round’s mine anyway.”

“It’s the principle of the thing.”

He rolled his eyes, laughing a little as he placed his phone facedown on the middle of the small, rounded table. Niall took the pint glass between his hands, looking at his friend over the rim.

“Did I tell you already that this lavender color looks good on you?” he said, scrunching up his face a little as his hands went to look at his nails.

He swatted the hand away. “Dunno about it actually. But I think I’m not biting my nails as much, though,” shrugged Niall. “I’ll have to see what I do during Christmas. I’ll get my head chopped off if they see me nails like this, ‘cause it’s not proper interview attire. As if I’m always wearing interview attire, you know.”

“Ah, head chopping. The classic Irish Christmas tradition, only to be celebrated within families, of course. If ma asks me, I’ll just say that I’ve still barely seen you this term,” he said, rolling his eyes a little as he took another sip of his beer. "Not that it's a lie, though."

“I saw you the other day!”

“Oh, I’ve seen you twice in a week,” he smiled. "Wow."

“Don’t be a dick,” he said, smiling pointedly. He sighed, taking a good portion of his beer. “I am trying to be better about that, though. Next time all the crew goes out, I’ll be there. Honestly.”

He nodded. “Look forward for it then. I think Laura’s been talking about doing a good roast before finals, so you might as well just come by.”

“Oh, yeah, I can always bring the potatoes I make,” he said, running a finger through the condensation around the glass and drawing little figures with it.

“As long as you don’t bring that chicken, we’re good,” he laughed, taking a swig of his beer.

He frowned. “It was seasoned!”

“It wasn’t, really.”

“It was good!”

“It was horribly dry.”

Niall huffed out a little, drinking from his glass as Bressie laughed louder. He bit back his smile, rolling his eyes and sticking out his tongue.

“But, really, what have you been up to? And, yes, that means that Laura and Eoghan have told me to ask you all about your harem. No, I’m sorry, it’s not really a harem.”

“They’re such gossips.”

“Willie and Deo have told us a few things-”

“How dare they?”

Bressie smiled. “But we still wanna know how it’s going. ‘Cause we wanna know how things are going for you.”

Niall scrunched up his nose. “Aren’t harems for women, anyway? We’re all blokes.”

Bressie rolled his eyes, giving him a pointed look.

He smiled, turning the beer around the glass as he flicked his brain through the last two weeks. And he really hadn’t done much, just the usual going to and from classes and studying as finals got closer. He frowned, trying to remember whether he’d spent some time alone outside the library in these past few weeks.

Not that he minded their everlasting presence, even if it was only Harry or Zayn around, but he needed his time. It was just that this night wasn’t about them. It was just about him and Bressie and their friendship.

Niall shrugged. “Just, you know, lots of studying.”

“C’mon, now, boy,” Bressie smiled, prodding his thigh. “What else have you been up to?”

“You know I hate it when people call me boy,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“C’mon, boy.”

“I don’t want to talk about them tonight?” he said, accidentally phrasing it as a question and scrunching up his face. He sipped a bit of his beer as Bressie raised his eyebrows.

“You fighting?”

“No, it’s just-” He sighed. “This night’s about us two. Even if we were fighting, which we’re not, it’s not as if I’m in a relationship with Harry or Zayn,” he said, shrugging a little. Why was it so hard for people to understand? “We’re all just friends and we’ve all got our separate lives and everything, you know?”

“Right,” he said, nodding a little. “So then, in your separate life, what’s been going on?”

He blinked, trying to flick through all the things he’d done recently. Because he surely had a separate life apart from them, right? Of course he did, he told himself, frowning a little as he finished his beer.

“I’ve told you about my globalization prof, right?”

“I feel like you have, but I don’t remember which one it is,” he said, frowning as he turned to look at his better.

“I swear, it’s such an interesting topic. If I weren't taking human rights, I'd be my favorite class this term,” Niall sighed out, rolling his eyes. “I just don’t get how the prof makes it so boring, fuck’s sake. It’s incredible!”

“Oh, that’s the same one that’s always telling you that it’s not that hard to understand things, right?” smiled Bressie.

“Yes!” he said, raising his hands. “And then he’s like, ‘Oh, I took a class about this with a very good professor when I was doing my doctorate’s…’ Well, I’m sorry, but I haven’t had that opportunity! I wouldn’t know how that feels!”

Bressie’s laugh boomed around the pub, over the rock music playing through the older speakers.

“Oh God, I missed this,” he said.

“Yeah, so did I,” Niall smiled. He sighed a little, standing up and flicking his hands by his trousers. “Next round?”

He ran his hands through his hair. He smiled back at Brez and his affirmation, giving him a cheeky wink that made him laugh before walking away of the table.

 

Niall looked up from his laptop. He frowned at the door as someone knocked it again, disturbing his peace.  

It was Sunday. It was God’s day. The flat was all his today, his cousins off at some conference throughout the day. No one should be bothering him on a day like this.

Maybe it was just his music, he gathered, returning his attention to his laptop. His phone buzzed on the coffee table.

He sighed, 'cause reaching out to place it on do not disturb was absolutely too much work. He decided the sacrifice was worth it in order to satisfy his curiosity to know who the fuck decided that multiple-texting him was okay on a day like this.

_I can hear Lorde from the door. Open up? xx_

_Unless you’re not home and it’s ur cousins’ music I’m hearing._

_Or maybe you’re home and it’s their music._

_I guess this is my way of asking if you’re at your flat and for you to open up if you are because I’m at the door. Sorry xx_

Niall sighed, throwing his feet over the sofa and walking to the door.

He frowned at Harry, taking a deep breath as he looked at him up and down. He had no business coming up to his door on a Sunday afternoon, all well dressed and hands behind him. The most Niall had done in the day was to put on his joggers and served himself some cereal, so fuck him, really.

“What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to see you?” he said, giving him a confused smile and tilting his head.

He rested his head against the doorframe, taking the door with him and practically squashing his face a little. He frowned, moving it away just a little.

“Okay, you saw me,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “Bye, then?”

Harry frowned. “I… Well, if you want me to?”

Niall rolled his eyes. “You can’t just pop up in my doorstep whenever you want and expect me to clear my schedule for you.”

“I-” He bit his lower lip a little. “Well, I thought it was okay, seeing as I’ve followed you home before and I’ve come here before like this and everything, but, okay,” he said, sighing a little. “Your house, your rules. Just…”

His eyes widened as Harry revealed a small bouquet of flowers behind him, holding them out for him. He didn’t know much about flowers, didn’t even know any of their names, but these were bright and colorful and he was holding them out for him and-

“Oh,” he said, slowly reaching out for them and examining them.

He glanced at the flowers as his hands reached out for them, meeting Harry’s eyes. And, fuck, he was literally wearing some ratty joggers and some funny, mismatched socks.

“I saw them in the market this morning,” Harry said, clearing his throat a little as he stepped back. Niall closed his eyes for a second, forcing himself to take a deep breath. “Went there to take some photos, you see. I saw them and I thought of you, and I haven’t seen you in a few days, so… Wanted to give these to you. That’s all.”

He shrugged again.

Niall looked at the flowers again, stopping his fiddling with the paper wrapping. He pressed his face against the doorframe, trying to ignore guilt weighing him down.

“See you, then.”

“Wait,” Niall said, standing up straighter and so, so glad to see that Harry still hadn’t given a step away from him. He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apolo-”

“No, I do,” he said, nodding a little to himself. “Even without these, I would’ve done it eventually. I was just looking forward to spending a whole day home alone, just chilling, you know. I didn’t mean to take it out on you, like.”

Harry nodded. “Alright.”

“You…” He sighed a little, opening the door just a smidge more. He could feel the hopeful smile forming on his lips. “You want to come in and be a couch potato for the entire day? I’m thinking of ordering some pizza later.”

“Only if I get to be the little spoon when we’re cuddling,” smiled Harry, stepping towards him. "And if you give me coffee at some point."

He smiled, nodding a little. “Right, that’s the best, anyway. But maybe tea instead, so you're not climbing me walls later.”

He led him to the bedroom, moving his things from the sofa after he remembered the last time Harry had fallen asleep in his small couch. He scrunched up his nose. The bed would be lots more comfortable, yeah. He filled one of his Van Gogh vodka bottles he had around his room with water, placing the flowers in them.

He sighed as he laid down beside Harry, smiling at the shorts that were a bit too big for Niall anyway. He wrapped an arm around him and brought him closer.

Harry took his hand, turning a bit to look at him. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, both as a response and as a reaction to the fact that he would have to type with only one hand. “Just didn’t want to do anything today.”

“I’m sorry, love,” Harry said, kissing his hand briefly. “But, well, I meant about the fact that I hadn’t seen you in a quite some days. Almost a week, if we don’t count that day I saw you on the halls between class. Neither has anyone else, other than the brief snaps you send us. So, um, are we alright?”

He sighed, breathing him in as he rested his forehead on his shoulder. “I just needed a bit of time by myself, that’s all. Plus, exams, like. Got quite overwhelmed and I thought I needed a bit of a breather and didn’t even notice how long it’d been, I swear. Sorry.”

Harry looked at him, eventually nodding and pushing himself up to kiss him briefly. “That’s okay. Tell us next time, so we can back off a little and avoid this happening again?”

Niall took a deep breath, closing his eyes. He nodded, smiling a little at the feel of another kiss.

“Now, I’m afraid I wasn’t doing anything too exciting before you got here,” smiled Niall, reawakening his laptop.

“That’s alright.”

“I was just organizing my online planner,” he continued, lowering down the music’s volume.

“Your online planner?” said Harry, looking up at him with a deep frown. “Niall, that’s not exciting at all.”

“Excuse you, I happen to find it very relaxing and satisfying,” he said, showing him around the website with its several tabs and colors. “Look at it. All pretty and organized. So nice.”

“That’s disgusting,” he said, biting down his arm a little. “Not even my calendar is this organized. Or Liam’s, he showed it to me the other day. I think his was a bit more colorful, though.”

Niall smiled. “I’m sure it works for you two, but this works for me.”

Harry took his laptop away. “That’s not a Sunday funday activity. Not even a lazy day activity. Dear God, just put on some Netflix. It’s not that hard.”

“I wasn’t done-”

“You can keep planning your week and month and life later,” he said, scrolling through his list on Netflix. “Right now we’re going to watch Tarzan because we’re adults and the soundtrack’s the best.”

He huffed out a small laugh. He dragged Harry closer to him, hiding his smile on his shoulder as the screen started loading in front of them.

“Alright,” he muttered, placing a kiss by his ear. “Just ‘cause it really is the best soundtrack.”

Harry shushed him. He laughed, tightening his hold on him and breathing in as Phil Collin’s voice greeted them.

After that, things pretty much returned to normal. Their normal, at least, with the added stress of finals on the corner. Or the denial of stress and finals in the corner, like in this moment, when he was thoroughly enjoying scrolling through Amazon.

“That one’s pretty,” Zayn said, from where he was laying across of him on the sofa.

Niall scrunched up his nose a little. “Yeah, but it’s almost Christmas.”

“It’s not even December yet.”

"It's just a few days away,” he shrugged, clicking on another color. “But dunno about Christmas colors, though. Maybe I’d do pink, but not actual Christmas colors.”

“What’s wrong with Christmas colors?” he said, stretching and taking his hands to his hair. He scrubbed his face, making his eyeglasses fall a bit from his face. Niall couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “What if you paint your hair green with red highlights?”

“Yuck.”

“Or vice versa?”

“Ew.”

Zayn crossed his arms as he leaned forward to look at the screen better. “Rihanna pulled off red hair.”

Niall laughed, throwing his head back. “Yeah, but that’s Rihanna, though. I’m not doing red hair, no.”

“Hard at work?” They looked up to Liam standing over them. Niall smiled. Liam raised an eyebrow. “Or hardly working?”

“No, I’m pretty sure we’re hard at work,” said Zayn, nodding a little.

“Then let me see your screens.”

Niall and Zayn looked at each other.

“Well, you didn’t ask what we were working on,” pointed out Niall, allowing Liam to look at his Amazon tab. Because maybe Zayn was right when he said he should try out non-permanent dye and see how it worked out, since he couldn’t do it himself with his teaching practice.

He laughed a little as Liam frowned at Zayn’s paused Power Rangers episode.

“You two asked me to keep you in check tonight so you finished everything you had to do. So this is me checking up on you. Niall,” said Liam, giving him an I’m-watching-you gesture before starting to walk towards his place in the table. “Finish your essay. And you, read the three chapters for tomorrow!”

“But I don’t have anything more to say about renewable energy in developing countries!” he whined, sliding down the sofa a little and being properly welcomed into Zayn’s arms. “The answer is yes! Why do I need a thousand words about it?”

“Just finish it already!”

Niall gave him the finger. He smiled, feeling Zayn nuzzling the side of his face. He took his hand to Zayn’s hair, smile widening when he hummed.

“You know,” he murmured, pressing a kiss on Niall’s neck. He giggled, pushing him away. “Maybe we could work out something if you manage to write a good essay before midnight.”

He rolled his eyes. “Nice try, but I need to upload it before midnight anyway.”

Zayn hummed, running his hand by his waist. “The more time you take to write it, the more time I’ll take with you later?”

Niall sat up, turning to look at him better. And, okay, he looked completely serious.

“A good essay?” he said, raising an eyebrow. “How are you going to decide if it’s good or not, mate?”

“I’m an English student, mate,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I know a bit about essays. But Harry can read it over if you want another opinion, whenever he finishes preparing his presentation.”

He pushed his feet away from him, making him frown. “You gotta stop lazying around too then. But I’m not saying yes, though.”

He sighed. “Fine. Whoever finishes first will get to decide how things go down tonight. Happy?”

“Fine, yeah, happy. Go read your chapters, mate.”

And yet he did absolutely nothing to get up from the sofa, instead closing his eyes. Niall poked his stomach.

He opened one eye. “One side of your head could be red and another green.”

Niall laughed, pushing him off the sofa and making him fall with an _oomph_. “It’s not gonna happen!”

Zayn flipped him off. Niall rolled his eyes, figuring that he should at least do something more than writing his own name on the document.

It wasn’t long until Louis arrived with an “Oi oi! Hope there’s food for me!” throwing his bag by the sofa, before greeting Zayn and Niall with a kiss on their cheek.

“The timer hasn’t rang yet, so no.”

“Boo! Timer? What is this, Masterchef?” he asked, plopping down on the sofa beside him and resting his feet near Zayn on the coffee table. He kicked Zayn’s hands away.

“Feet off,” he said, returning his attention to his document because he was actually doing some progress and Louis was absolutely not going to ruin it.

Louis sighed a second later, hopping off the sofa and having Zayn following him to the kitchen. Whatever, as long as he finished his essay and didn’t have to endure Zayn’s smirk later, that was alright with him.

Two paragraphs later, Liam leaned against the sofa, looking over Niall’s shoulder as he wrote.

“Alright?”

“C’mere,” said Niall, patting down the space beside him on the sofa. Liam sat down, so he threw a leg over him. "You’re not moving from here until I finish this essay and you’re going to enjoy not doing anything until I say so, alright?” he said, not even looking away from him screen to look at Liam’s expression. The little noise he let out said enough.

“But I-”

Niall shushed him. “You’ll make me lose my train of thought.”

Liam sighed, slumping down on the sofa and resting his head on his shoulder as he read what Niall wrote. He could hear Zayn and Louis singing something over by the kitchen, Harry shushing them but only making them laugh instead. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to at least finish this one paragraph.

He knew very well how this time of the semester always went along for him, even if he tried. And he was trying, it was just that now he always had someone around to force him to study… Or to allow him to not study at all, depending on the day and the person.

Niall sat on the little wooden chair he’d brought to the bathroom. Niall turned the page over, squirming as the cold liquid ran down his ear.

“Zaaayyyn!”

He swore under his breath as he dried his ear with a towel. “I thought you wanted purple ears for a mo’ there.” Zayn laughed. “Keep reading?”

He sighed a little, reopening the book as he felt him take another strand of his hair and applying the hair dye. He resumed reading out loud the book in front of him, even if he barely understood any of the terminology. The brain and learning processes were so _cool_ , though.

He’d only read two more pages when someone knocked on the door.

“Are you done?” Harry’s voice rang out.

“Almost,” said Zayn, standing in front of him and taking another portion of his hair.

Harry made a noise, opening the door and staring at the two of them. “Whatever, I need to pee, if you don’t like it, close your eyes.”

Niall rolled his eyes. He continued reading into the following page and down until the end of the section. It wasn’t until then that he met Harry’s eyes, from where he’d closed the toilet lid and sat smiling at them.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Harry smiled.

He smiled, looking down to the book between his hands. “Anyway… Next section?”

“Nah, I’m done,” said Zayn, running his hands through Niall’s hair one last time. “I’ll just finish reading it later, if you want.”

Harry rolled his eyes.  “I can finish it. Sit.”

Zayn took a deep breath, sitting down on the tub with his back all slumped up and his feet over the edge of the tub. He raised an eyebrow as one of Harry’s hands inched closer to Zayn’s feet, his smile all too evident.

“I’ll fucking kick you.”

Harry stuck his tongue out, moving his hands away.

“Well,” he said. “Moving on to the book, lads.”

He read out loud from the book. Niall brought his legs up, propping his head above his knees as he looked at the scene in front of him. He hid his smile. Idiots.

“Zayn,” Harry said, looking over at him and the way he’d propped his head against the wall and closed his eyes. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Children all have the same language acquisition steps but not the same learning rates,” he replied, not moving an inch and keeping his eyes closed.

Harry looked at Niall, all serious versus Niall’s growing smile. He shrugged. Harry rolled his eyes, closing the book.

Zayn jumped as Harry hit his head with the small book, eyes wide. He turned to glare at Niall with all his laughter. Harry stuck his tongue out again, turning so he could put his feet beside Zayn’s legs.

Zayn’s feet dangled a bit on the edge of the tub until he budged up, glaring at the two of them.

“What?!”

“Eyes open or you’ll fall asleep,” Niall said, rolling his eyes.

Harry reopened the book. “Don’t try and tell us we’re wrong. Two more pages, c’mon,” he said, before Zayn could say anything else.

Zayn rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and looking up at the ceiling.

Harry and Niall shared a smile before he returned to the book, reading out loud the words and looking up every once in a while to make sure Zayn was still paying attention.

It wasn’t long until the alarm on his phone rang out, announcing it was time for him to rinse off his dye.

Niall looked at Harry as Zayn left the room with the chair in tow. Niall closed the door behind him, raising an eyebrow when Zayn returned just a few seconds later.

“Louis and Liam are arguing about some stupid shit again,” he said, looking at Niall. And, yeah, that was a good enough reason.

“You two can stay, then, if you want,” said Niall, shrugging a little. He chuckled, raising his eyebrows. “Save yourselves.”

He drew back the shower curtain and started to undress. He took a deep breath, folding his clothes and placing them by the towel.

It should bother him, he guessed, how the hot water was rushing down his body and probably staining his tub even more with the dye, while Harry and Zayn were a thin shower curtain away, disagreeing on what music to play. He took another deep breath, reaching for the shampoo.

“Maybe you could wash your hair after Ni,” he heard Zayn mutter. “S’greasy.”

“Your face’s greasy,” retorted Harry.

He heard a little slap, followed by Zayn making out a pained sound. Niall smiled and rolled his eyes. Idiots.

Niall wiped the water from his face, dancing a little as they finally seemed to agree on some Solange.

“Wait, were you high?” asked Zayn, interrupting Harry's hums.

“No!” A beat. “Weeeell, maybe a little?”

Zayn made that soft noise again. “You smoked without me?”

Niall rolled his eyes, laughing out at Zayn’s heartbroken voice. He closed his eyes as he rinsed off the conditioner, breathing in as half-hearted attempt at soothing his tense muscles on his shoulders as they continued their banter. He grabbed the towel minutes later, reappearing in front of them with his pants on.

“C’mon, it’s twisty towel time,” said Harry, standing up and doing a little twisty dance with his hips.

Niall smiled as Harry took a ratty towel and twisted it around his hair. He laughed, moving to put on his joggers as he watched Zayn’s soft smile. He could maybe put on his shirt too to avoid excusing his reddening skin on the steam, but excuses schmuses.

“Are they done?” said Harry, pressing his ear on the door. “I have to study.”

Zayn pulled him towards him, wrapping an arm around his waist. He leaned against the sink “Or you could wait more and not study for a while.”

Harry frowned. “We’re not all like you and your three-hour breaks, Zayn.”

“Three-hour breaks are the best, what you talking about?” frowned Niall, kicking his leg a bit.

“Niall’s right,” nodded Zayn, raising an eyebrow at Harry. “Niall’s always right.”

Harry frowned, inching away from Zayn in a huff. He rolled his eyes, pulling him in for a kiss.

“You’re right oftentimes, don’t worry, babe,” he said, laughing a little against his lips. “Just not this time.”

Niall smiled, crossing his arms a little as Harry pushed Zayn away with a “wanker.”

“I think it’s just important to remember, Haz, like the philosopher of our generation, in her alter ego once said: everybody makes mistakes,” Zayn smiled, only to have Harry roll his eyes once more, a contained smile in his lips this time. Zayn laughed a little, removing the towel from Niall’s hair and running a hand by it. “It’s gonna look sick when it’s all dry, by the way.”

“You, thanks, though Miley Cyrus has not reached the status of philosopher of our generation yet,” he said, pointing at Zayn. He jumped a little, turning to point at Harry. “And you, did I tell you Dan told me that you did a good job on your Crim Law presentation?”

Harry shrugged, moving down to bite his finger. Niall slapped him away, much to Zayn’s enjoyment. “I think I did alright,” he said.

“He said you smashed it.”

He scrunched up his nose. “What were you even doing, talking with him about me?”

He shrugged, glancing for a moment to look how Zayn was tying those strings in his joggers. He raised his eyebrows at Harry. “Why’d you care?”

“Yeah, Haz, why’d you care?” smirked Zayn.

“Why’d _you_ two care?” Harry scoffed, uncrossing his arms before pushing himself away from the sink.

He only opened the door, waiting a few seconds before doing anything. They looked at each other, not saying anything at the lack of any yelling. Harry placed his hand on the door just as a "The fuck, Liam?!" rang out.

He closed it, wincing a little. An appropriate reaction, really, thought Niall. They didn’t need to hear Louis tell Liam that he needed to get his shit together.

They already knew that, yikes.

“Well, that’s none of our business,” Niall said, taking his hand and pulling him towards them.

“No, stop, you’re not properly dried up yet,” he said, even if he did nothing to pull himself away.

“Real proud of you for that presentation,” smiled Zayn, humming a little as Harry moved towards him.

Niall smiled. Louis and Liam would have to figure out what to do themselves, hopefully as soon as possible so they could leave the humid bathroom soon, but at least the three of them had figured out something that worked. He pressed his face against Zayn’s shoulder as the two of them continued with their ridiculous banter, making him smile.

He would have to figure out a way to express his gratefulness later, when he didn't have to argue his position on Miley Cyrus.

 

Niall sighed, closing the door beside him after the stenchy smell of weed hit him. Zayn had been a bundle of nerves and it wasn’t like he could help that much himself anyway, so he’d just wanted to check up on him after Louis had taken him into his room some moments ago, see if he'd had more success than him. Admittedly, Niall didn’t stick around enough to see if Louis solution of trying to hotbox his room had worked, but maybe he didn't really want to know. Last Saturday he had witnessed the way Zayn and Louis looked at each other when they were all loose and hazy-eyed and nope. He didn’t want or need to witness it again.

And he wasn’t going to say anything either about it, he’d decided. He’d already let his jealousy get a hold of him once with Harry. He didn’t want it to work as a precedent if the agreement between the three of them ever became one between four people.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. He needed a break.

His eyes fell on Liam on the other side of the room, looking at an unspecified spot as his fingers tapped his closed textbook along with whatever song he was listening to on his earbuds.

It wasn’t long before his feet led the way. He guessed that’s how he ended up at his favorite pub, walking towards their table with his hands full.

“Here we go!” he said, placing the two pints on the table.

Liam sighed a little, eyeing the glass and taking it into his hand. Niall had to admit, he looked a bit out of place in this corner seat, but maybe it was just the hoodie. Or maybe the fact that he’d never brought anyone here, and he’d only brought Liam after making him pinky swear not to tell the others.

“Thanks,” he murmured, looking downwards as he sipped from his cup.

“So, what’s up?”

Liam shrugged. “Dunno, you’re the one who invited me here.”

“Well, I felt like you needed a break. I felt like I needed a pint. Two birds, one stone,” shrugged Niall.

“I didn’t need a break,” said Liam, frowning a little as he leaned back on his chair. “Though, if it’s ‘cause we’re comparing, then you’d think I do, yeah. I saw your planner and you have a three-hour break scheduled tomorrow,” he added, at the look of his raised eyebrows. “Three hours!”

“Well, it’s after studying a lot, so I deserve it,” shrugged Niall. “But let’s not talk about uni tonight?”

Liam sighed a little, nodding before taking another sip. He tapped his fingers against the wooden table, looking up at him and sighing a little bit more.

“I just don’t get it, that’s all.”

“What?”

“The fact that you brought me here?” he said, raising his eyebrows a little. Niall frowned. “Like, we don’t…”

“What?”

“Like, do stuff the two of us?” he said, scrunching up his face quickly. “Not in that way, no, I don’t mean it like that. I meant, like, yeah, there’s always someone else when we hang out, not that I mind but-”

“Well, we gotta start somewhere, don’t we?” smiled Niall, placing a hand over his thigh. “And you’re my honorary Irish lad. Why wouldn’t I do this for you?”

Liam smiled, drinking a bit from his glass. His face flushed a bit from the drink and the lighting and the “Oh, God, stop. That’s so embarrassing.”

Niall laughed, throwing his head back as Liam rolled his eyes. He placed his hand over where he was going to take his phone out.

“No instagram,” he said. “No phones at all, actually. That's the only rule of getting pints with me.”

Liam sighed, rolling his eyes again. “I wasn’t going to go on instagram, but fine.” Niall raised an eyebrow. “Okay, fine, I was going on instagram,” said Liam, sighing a little more and running a hand through his hair. “I might’ve unfollowed… My ex last night and it’s on private, so, you know, there’s no going back, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see her on her friends’ instas.”

Niall hummed, lifting his feet to the remaining chair across the table. “I’ll tell Louis how to draw your secrets out of you next time, then. A pint and refusal to take out your phone.”

He smiled, watching the way Liam slumped against his chair, tapping the table once more as he thought about whatever it was he was going to say.

“He needs to chill. If I don’t want to talk about it, then I don’t want to talk about it, you know?” Liam rolled his eyes. He eyed Niall, biting his lip before drinking a big portion of his glass. “And- Well, I’ll just say it because it’s been driving me insane, but between the two of us… Thanks for not saying anything?”

“About what?” He frowned a little. Liam took another deep breath, taking his glass once more to his lips. “I invited you here, but I don’t want to take care of you again if you get drunk. I mean, I will, but please don't, please pace yourself,” he said, shaking his head as he repositioned his feet and looked at Liam better.

Liam ran his hand through his soft curls again.

“Listen, I know you saw me and Louis that night, alright? In the loo?” said Liam, crossing his arms a little as he looked at Niall with big eyes. He shrugged. “So, well, thank you for being chill about it and not saying anything about it.”

Niall placed his glass better on the coaster and turned to look at Liam, tilting his head a little.

“First of all, it’s not really my business, so of course I didn’t say anything. And I didn’t invite you here so we could talk about it, if that’s what you were wondering,” he said, frowning a little.

“Oh- Well, anyway, I wanted to thank you.”

“I mean, we can talk about it if you want, but we don’t have to,” he said, raising his hands.

“I mean…” Liam shrugged. “There’s not that much to talk about, I think? I was real pissed and it seemed like a great idea and, hey, I’m single again, so yolo. Because drunk logic, you know.”

Niall tapped the wooden table with his fingernails. “What about Louis, though?”

Liam frowned. “What about him?”

“Well, it’s not as if he can give the same reasoning behind it as you can,” pointed out Niall.

Liam raised his eyebrows, pointedly drinking from his glass. “Dunno, haven’t asked him about it,” he said quickly. Niall blinked. Liam drank a bit more, enunciating his words clearly. “Well, I’m kind of letting him think that I don’t remember it? For all he knows, the other day is the only time I, like, remember fooling around with him and I've explicitly told him I don't want to talk about it.”

Niall frowned, trying to make sense of this new information. “Wait, what?”

“The other day when you were dyeing your hair, I think it was?” said Liam, furrowing his eyebrows. “For all he knows, that’s the first time that I know that we were fooling around. But I said I didn't want to talk about it, so I don't really know what he thinks.”

Niall huffed out a little laugh. “I understood the bit about you two not talking about it, Liam. The other part, though?! What?”

Liam stared at him for a few seconds, before taking in a sharp breath and raising his eyebrows. “Oh! I thought you three stayed in the bathroom ‘cause, like, you were doing your own thing and you knew I was sucking Louis off and didn’t want to, like, walk in into that.”

Niall’s eyes grew wide as he laughed because “What? No! What the fuck, Liam?! In my sofa?”

Liam pulled a face. “Whoops.”

He leaned against the table, trying to breathe in between his laughs because “What the fuck?”

“I don’t know!” said Liam, eyes wide. He raised his shaky hands. “All I know is that we were arguing and then I thought it’d be a good idea to suck him off and, because it’s not like I have any sort of impulse control with Louis, I did! I don’t know! And, fuck, it’s like- I don’t know if Harry knows either and I’m just completely freaking out, Niall. I don't know why I even did that when I know it's just going to mess up whatever you all have."

“Okay, okay. Breathe,” said Niall, calming down enough to drag his chair closer to Liam’s. He placed a hand on his shoulder. “Have at least considered talking about it with Louis?"

“I don’t know what I’d even say,” moaned out Liam, leaning his head against the wall. “I don’t know, Ni. I’ve been avoiding it and trying to focus on exams ‘cause I don’t want to fail, but at the same time, I can't focus on them well, can't I?”

“Okay,” Niall nodded, running a hand through Liam’s hair. “I mean, I can’t talk ill of you avoiding the problem, because it’s sometimes the best option, isn’t it?”

“Totally.”

“And you should focus on your exams, but that doesn’t mean the rest of your life has to stop, you know? Try to figure out what you feel and all that shit, and talk with Louis about it, alright? Even if just a bit, 'cause you need to acknowledge his feelings too,” Niall said, leaning down on his chair and taking a hold of Liam’s hand. “The two of us don’t have to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to. But you do need to talk to Louis and Harry, yeah? And breathe, like. Everything will work out. You’ll see.”

Liam only sighed, scooting closer to him and laying down his head on his shoulder. “Thank you, Niall.”

Niall ran a hand through his hair, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Of course, love. Of course. D’you want some nachos?” he asked, as Liam hid his face against his neck. “They do some great ones here. They’ll make you feel better.”

It hurt his soul to see Liam teary-eyed and admitting that he didn’t know why his love wasn’t enough, that maybe the three of them had a good thing going on with their sharing. He ran a hand through Liam’s hair and down his back, sharing a plate of chicken nachos between the two of them. He sighed, wishing that he knew the answers for his questions.

 

Niall sighed. “I’m not going to finish this shit on time.”

He closed his eyes, slumping on the couch. He took a deep breath as he felt Louis’ hand on his thigh. He opened an eye as the hand slipped away, raising an eyebrow.

Louis shifted closer to Niall, taking a hand to his hair.

“I think you can do it. It’s just two more paragraphs, love,” said Louis, glancing at him before returning his attention to his hair.

Niall groaned, bringing his knees to his chest. He looked around the apartment and the closed door on the other side of the room. It kinda _was_ his fault, for not listening to Harry when he’d told him to budge up on the sofa, but that didn’t mean Harry could just go to sleep when he was absolutely going to fail this fucking project.

He sighed, writing and writing until it was all up and submitted and he decided that the best way to celebrate was to be all sprawled on the sofa under a laughing Louis.

“Get off,” he mumbled, kicking his shins a little.

He rolled a bit, squishing himself between the sofa and Niall. He bit down on his shoulder.

Niall looked at Louis, with his hair tucked in a little headband and his too soft eyes. He closed his eyes, hiding his face in the nook of his neck. Louis’ hands continued running through his hair, through one two three breaths.

“You should sleep,” muttered Louis.

“I don’t have enough time to sleep, though,” muttered Niall, closing his eyes.

“Weren’t you telling me the other day about how time wasn’t real? Gave me quite an existential crisis right before work, so I hope you haven’t forgotten that.

“I haven’t,” he said, trying to keep his face blank. “I don’t know why I decided that physics class would be an easy elective, by the way.”

“Don’t think about that right now.” Louis shifted a little, tracing little figures over his shoulder.

Niall sighed as Louis placed his chin on his chest. Louis scrunched up his nose, making that face with those twisty eyes he loved so much, making him laugh out. Louis pushed himself to his elbows, his lips brushed his just so slightly, enough to make him draw his breath sharply.

Niall jerked backwards, his back against the armrest.

“Shit,” said Louis, sitting up himself and keeping his hands away from Niall. He forced his eyes shut. “Fuck, I’m sorry. _Fuck_. ”

Niall forced himself to take deep breath. He knew Louis liked to test boundaries and all, but fuck. ‘Cause it was all fun in games when you knew your own boundaries, but not when Niall wasn’t a hundred percent sure lately on what their boundaries were, wondering if things had changed one day when he was at the library and no one had bothered to tell him anything.

“Niall? I’m so sorry, I just- I didn’t think at all. Fuck, I never think things through and I definitely overstepped but, please, just say something? Even if it’s just get the fuck away? Because fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.”

Louis laughed weakly, giving him his wide eyes.

Niall slid away just a bit. He brushed his hair, his eyes resting for a second on Harry’s closed door.

“We shouldn’t,” said Niall, before anything else popped up in his mind; an excuse, an opportunity, a reason why they should.

Louis blinked, nodding furiously. “I know. I know, I’m just- Fuck. Sorry, I’m just-”

“There’s just other people involved, remember?” he added, covering Louis’ shaking hands with his own. He looked at him, trying to compress all his current feelings within just one look. He took a deep breath.

His eyes grew wider. “Fuck! Zayn’s gonna absolutely murder me.”

Niall smiled, slowly sliding a bit closer to him. Louis didn’t react harshly, so he tightened his hold on his hands.

“He’s not,” he said.

“Oh, that’s because I don’t think you’ve really noticed the way he looks at you. Or ‘cause you weren’t there when Harry told him about us two, because, fuck, those eyes. It’s like he’s looking into your soul and, like...” Louis retrieved his hands, shaking them as he looked around the flat.

“He’s severely disappointed in you,” finished Niall, nodding a little. He pulled a face. “I do know that look, though. Sorry you had to go through that.”

Louis shrugged, “Probably deserved it, honestly. Even if just a bit.”

Niall hummed a little under his breath. He drew a little shape on Louis’ arm. He didn’t know what it was, but hopefully it served its purpose. “It’s not that I don’t exactly want to,” he said, careful to articulate all his syllables. “I just think that we’re going to do this, we should do it well. Not like that shitstorm,” he added, laughing a little.

Louis chuckled, nodding a little.

“So, we’re alright, yeah?”

“We are,” said Louis, nodding frantically. A beat. He added more softly, “We are. Are we?”

“We are,” reassured Niall, nodding and smiling at him. He held his face for a second, looking into his large eyes and pressing a kiss on his forehead. “We are alright. I just want to talk to Harry and Zayn about this. And then should talk about it, all four of us.”

Louis laughed, closing his eyes as Niall his forehead against his. “I don’t know how you’re so fucking calm.”

“I don’t know,” smiled Niall. “Too tired to stress about this. I’ll stress about it tomorrow.”

Louis breathed him in, pushing him down so he was laying on the sofa. “Sleep.”

Niall grasped his hand, wrapping a leg around him so he wouldn’t leave as easily. “Just stay with me here, yeah?”

“I literally have a comfortable bed on the other side of this wall,” deadpanned Louis.

Niall pulled him closer, running a hand through his hair as Louis laid tense beside him.

“Nope,” he said, popping the last consonant. “You’re staying with me and you’re not moving me.”

He yawned, covering his mouth with his hand. Louis giggled, pressing a kiss on his shoulder as he closed his eyes.

Next thing he knew, a pair of hands was shaking his shoulder and when was it going to fucking _stop_ -

“Niall, c’mon love, you’ve got to wake up.”

He sighed, turning to face against the sofa’s back.

“Niall, babe,” said Harry’s voice, his hand rubbing his sides. He kissed his ear, muttering again, “You’ve got class in half an hour.”

“Ugh.”

He stretched as much as he could and opened his eyes to meet Harry’s. He rolled his eyes, reaching down to kiss him. Niall smiled, noticing how the frown he hadn’t noticed he had before started fading away.

Niall ended the kiss, pushing him away just a little as he scrunched up his nose. “Your hair tickles.”

“What hair?” he laughed, reaching down again and, fucking God, his hair was all over his face.

“Stop, I’m awake, I’m awake,” he laughed, pushing him away better.

Harry sat beside him. “You could’ve joined me last night,” he said, placing his hand on his stomach. “No need to sleep on the sofa.”

“I-” He frowned, blinking a little as he looked around the flat. “I know, just… fell asleep here?”

Harry patted his thigh before standing up. “Silly lad. We’ve both got class in half an hour, so c’mon then. Get some brekkie and let’s go, go, go.”

Niall sighed, reaching over to the coffee table and the mess he’d created last night. At least his phone had enough battery to last him through class if he took enough precautions, but his thumb hovered over a notification as he swiped the others away.

He opened the message, reading its _don’t forget to breathe u can do it. and we wil talk abt last night later like u want to, but when we’re not super stressed alright ?_ and the _again, sorry. But lets just survive these few weeks first yeah x_ from this early morning.

Niall closed his eyes. So that was something that had definitely happened then.

And, God, Louis had been awake at that ungodly hour of seven am to send him those messages after he’d stayed until midnight cheering him on with his project.

He took a deep breath as he looked at himself in the bathroom’s mirror. His roots were becoming noticeable again but it kind of looked good with the faded lavender in his hair. He ran his hands through his hair, only to have one of them hit a little obstacle. There was still a tight little braid in a section of his hair, and if he thought about it well, he could remember Louis doing it last night as he wrote. And, well, if it looked a bit out of place, that was no one else’s business but his. Messy, messy colorful hair would have to be the norm for the rest of his day.

 

People should mind their business, honestly.

Niall emptied the contents of his cup.

He looked around the living room. Louis had finished his finals first, waiting for them to finish their own so he could throw his finals-are-over-and-i-no-longer-want-to-fucking-die party mixed in with a you-should’nt’ve-died-cause-it’s-my-birthday-soon-you-fuckers party. And, sure, inviting everyone’s friends sounded like a great idea in theory, but there were only so many people that could fit comfortably in a student's London flat, even if Harry and Louis' was the biggest of the five of them.

Well, there weren’t _that_ many people. Like, he could walk towards the table where Bressie was without a problem. But so, so many people he didn’t know. Which was weird. He didn’t like people he didn’t know in parties. Meeting them? Sure, that was great if he was in the mood. But not knowing them? Eh, not so great.

“Heyo again!” said Bressie, smiling at him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

“Heyooo,” he smiled. He placed his cup on the table, pressing a fist on his ribs. “Hit me up.”

He laughed, reaching over for the vodka bottle and only pouring a small splash of it on his cup. Niall frowned up at him.

“I don’t know, I don’t think it’s that good of an idea to let children drink.”

“We’ve both been drinking since we were like… twelve,” he pointed out. "Minimum."

“Have we? Still, I don’t know."

He blinked, frowning more at him. He pushed himself away. “Wait, I’m not a child!”

“That’s exactly what a child would say,” he smiled.

He punched him, even if it meant that it would make him laugh and talk about the next Connor McGregor, so whatever, really.

“I see how it is,” he said, grabbing another bottle from the table and pouring it into the his cup. “Whatever. That’s alright. I’ve got better friends.”

He stuck his tongue out as he walked away, watching as Bressie only turned to one of Louis’ friends with a roll of his eyes. He took a sip from his cup, giving him the finger.

He sat on Zayn’s lap, straddling his body and smiling a little on how he placed his hand over his thigh even if he continued talking with someone else. One of Liam’s friends that was still sticking around, he thought as he drank a bit more. Probably, but he honestly hadn’t been paying that much attention when Liam presented him a few hours ago.

He smiled as Zayn’s hand ran up his thigh, squeezing a little as he moved to give him his full attention. Niall bit the rim of his cup, raising his eyebrows and throwing an arm over his shoulder.

“Heya.”

Zayn chuckled, his droopy eyelids closing for a moment as he smiled at him, his hand still doing its thing.

“You look nice tonight,” he said.

“Look at it all you want, because you’re not gonna see this bod much after Christmas with the fam. We’ve already said goodbye to the hair. A sad day in our history,” he smiled, finishing his drink and going up to his kiss neck.

“That don’t matter, anyway,” he said, running a hand by his back. Niall smiled, placing another kiss up his jaw. “You gotta have to eat something else than stews one of these days, and that’s what family’s for.”

He frowned, pushing himself a bit away. “I cook other things than stews.”

Zayn scrunched up his nose. “Do you?”

“I do!” he said, pouting a little as he laughed. “I made that chicken pasta the other day!”

“Babe,” laughed Zayn, taking his hand to his face. “That chicken wasn’t that good. I told you.”

He huffed out, rolling his eyes. “Everyone keeps mouthing off my chicken. But, fuck you, I like it, so… fuck off!”

Zayn laughed out, pulling him by the shirt and kissing him. He smiled against his lips, ignoring the shouting from the game they were playing on the other side of the sofa. Niall hummed, rocking his hips before sitting up a little and cupping his face as he snogged him once more.

Zayn moaned below and, God, he was always so easy for him. He smiled, letting Zayn pull him closer. So, so easy.

They kissed for a while, just for the sake of it, ignoring the rounds of shouts behind them. Niall sighed as he ran his hands around him, striking back with a kiss on his neck and his jaw and-

There were drops of something falling down on him. He stopped, frowning as he looked up to the ceiling. It smelled faintly like whiskey, if he tried to put a word to it, but maybe that could be him.

“Get a roooooooom!”

Louis plopped himself on the space beside them, drinking from his cup before laughing at their faces and crying out once more “Get a rooooom!”

Louis dipped his hand on his cup and sprinkled them more of his drink.

Ah.

Niall rolled his eyes, laying down his head on Zayn’s shoulder without stopping to glare at him.

“You’re like cats,” Louis laughed, as Zayn reached out and pushed him away but only making him laugh harder. “I’m joking, though, don’t get a room. Harry won’t like it and I will positively kill you two. No rooms available for that. Just stop.”

“How come?” asked Zayn. “Jealous?”

Niall pushed himself from Zayn’s chest to look at him as he raised his eyebrows at Louis, a smirk on his lips. Louis wasn’t laughing anymore, instead frowning at him from where he was propped on an elbow. He took a swig of his cup and pushed Zayn with one of his feet.

“No.”

“No?”

"Nope."

"No?"

"Nah."

Niall’s head was going to hurt if this kept going on. It felt like he was watching another one of those drinking games. And he hated watching them. He preferred playing them instead, but he didn’t think he liked playing this particular one very much.

"You sure?"

Niall didn’t give Louis a chance to reply before removing himself from Zayn’s grasp and standing up. He fixed up his hair, readjusted his jeans a bit. He glanced the two of them, then at the small group of cups by the coffee table.

“I’m going to get a drink,” he said, a little giggle escaping his lips.

Zayn’s hand reached up to his thigh, running a thumb by the skin revealed by the jean’s ripped holes.

“Alright, then,” he muttered.

He pushed the hand away, glancing over at where Louis was watching from his corner, biting down on the rim of his cup. Niall laughed again for some reason, as if that made things any better, stepping back and moving to the other side of the room.

He didn’t need those… feelings in his life. Fuck them and those feelings too.

Niall decided on a glass of water in the kitchen, looking over at were Harry was speaking with some girls. He swore, looking at all the water he’d spilled. There was no towel around, but at least his shirt dried it up quite well enough.

He was careful not to spill anything more as he walked to Harry’s side and wrapped his other arm around him.

Harry was the most unproblematic of them, probably. Well, maybe not. In this moment he was, at least, so bless him, really.

He didn’t know how long he stayed there, his face against his chest and Harry’s hand running up and down his back from time to time. If he thought about it a little, he should be able to remember those other two girls’ names, some sisters, and join in the conversation, but he was alright about that, really.

He heard Liam’s laughter on the other side of the kitchen, saying goodbye to some of his friends. Niall placed a kiss on Harry’s cheek, then placed the cup down on the countertops on his way towards him, Liam’s face lighting up with a smile.

“Yoouuuuu!”

“Meee!” said Niall, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. “I feel like I've barely seen you tonight?”

“I drank a bit. Then went smoking,” said Liam, tilting his head as he frowned a little. He always did this thing where he frowned and pouted a little and it was one of Niall’s favorite things ever. “Oh, played that flippy cup game, but that was quite a while ago, I think.”

“You’re adorable,” smiled Niall.

Liam looked at him up and down, then rolled his eyes  “I mean, I’d say I’m super smoking, but sure,” he said, quickly erupting in a laugh. “Aw, look at you.”

“Aw,” said Niall, scrunching up his nose.

Liam giggled, hiding his face between his hands. Niall smiled, reaching over to pour himself another drink, raising an eyebrow to Liam. “How are you feeling then?”

“Good!” smiled Liam, placing another cup beside Niall’s. “Good. Like, so good.”

Niall smiled back, pouring considerably less liqueur on the second cup. “That’s good! That's good! Like, so good.”

Liam frowned, doing that little pouting thing once more, “Has someone ever told you that you’re not as nice as everyone says you are?”

“No?”

“Well, someone should,” he said, nodding seriously before drinking from his cup.

“Should what?” smirked Niall.

Liam frowned even more, a hand going up to push Niall’s hips against the wall. “You’re not as nice as other people think you are,” he said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, maybe,” he said, shrugging a little and winking at him.

Someone jumped beside them.

“Heyo, what’s happening here? Steve left and Zayn’s prissy at me and Harry’s busy and I’m bored.”

Niall frowned, looking at the space that was no longer occupied by, like, air and free molecules and shit and was now being occupied by Louis, laughing at his accidental rhyming. The universe was so weird.

“Apparently I’m not as nice as people say I am,” Niall said, biting down on his cup a bit. “Who would’ve thought?”

“What?” exclaimed Louis, turning around to frown at Liam.

“What?! Don’t look at me like that!” Liam raised his hands, looking at them both up and down before pointing at Niall. “Like, he was just mocking me! With a wink!”

“Mocking you. With a wink,” repeated Niall.

“Yes! Because you know I don’t know how to wink!”

Niall blinked, quickly glancing at how Louis’ eyebrows were raising.

“You don’t know how to wink?” asked Louis, a small smile forming on his lips.

“That’s what I just said!” said Liam, raising his hands a lot more. He yelped when he spilled a bit on his long-sleeved shirt, drinking from the cup quickly.

“How old are you again?” asked Niall, bumping Louis’ fist.

“I’m- You know how old I am. Either way, that is unimportant.”

“Go on, then,” smirked Louis. “Give us a little wink, love.”

Liam looked at the two of them, only frowning a little before forcibly shutting close both his eyes for a second.

“Ta da…”

Niall laughed out, leaning against the wall as Louis joined him and Liam crossed his arms. How had he gotten himself a little group like this, anyway?

“I don’t see what’s so funny here,” Liam said, rolling his eyes.

Niall laughed harder, wrapping an arm around Louis.

“C’mon,” said Liam, pouting at them.

Louis pushed himself from Niall, now wrapping his arms around Liam. “What if we teach you to wink?”

Niall laughed, raising a hand. “How do you even teach someone to wink? We’re not talking about snogging here.”

Louis looked at him for a few seconds, his considering eyes on him before moving to look at Liam’s. “It’s pretty easy. Just close one eye and not the other. I can teach you. But kissing, I recommend Niall. I think he’s the best kisser out of all of them.”

Liam’s eyes grew wide, looking between the two of them.

Niall took a deep breath, staring at Louis as he raised his eyebrows at him, a smirk widening on his lips. His words started weighing down on him as they made more and more sense, but it really was no use when the two of them were a bit drunk. If they were going to speak about that, and they were, it would have to be later. Sober.

Well, like his old mates back at home used to say when they were all starting to go out to proper teenage parties… When at loss of what to say, drink.

He didn’t even frown at Louis, he thought, so at least that was a victory.

“Let’s focus on the winking thing,” said Liam, emptying his cup and placing it on the corner of the table. He jumped around, nodding a little. "I'm ready, let's do the winking thing."

“Say that three times fast, go,” Niall said, pointing at Louis.

“Winking thing winguing think- Ah!”

Niall laughed, screaming as Louis pressed him against the wall to bite his neck. He pushed him away, still laughing.

“What the fuck?”

Louis shrugged. “Anyway, just like…” He pointed at Liam. “Do the winguing think- Oh, fuck you, Niall! But you, c'mon, I'll teach you.”

Liam looked at him as if he didn’t know what to make off of it, before slapping away from Louis’ hand away from his face.

“Lemme touch your eye area,” said Louis. “It’s like raising an eyebrow. If you do it like manually, you can train your muscles to do it themselves!”

Niall smiled, biting down the rim of his cup as he looked at Liam slapping away his hands again.

“Stop it! I don’t want your fingers on my eyes!”

“But what’s wrong with me fingers, anyway?”

Niall laughed, rolling his eyes before finishing the contents of his cup. He set it by the table beside Liam’s, he guessed, and pushed himself properly from the wall.

“Gotta go _wink_ -le,” smiled Niall. “Sorry, I meant tinkle.”

Louis laughed as Liam took a deep breath, trying to hide his smile. “You think you’re funny.”

“I’m, like, so funny,” smiled Niall, faking an American accent as he winked at him, walking away as Liam slapped Louis’ hands away again.

Niall found Liam outside Harry’s bathroom, biting his nails.

“Hey, don’t let Harry see you like that,” he laughed, taking his hands into his own. “He’ll paint your nails. Though, to be fair, it has actually helped me.”

Liam smiled faintly, looking at his nails. “Yellow would be nice, though. Dunno about you.”

“Eh, I’ve already have yellow hair so,” shrugged Niall. There was a little frown on Liam’s face again. “What's wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Liam.”

He sighed. Niall raised Liam’s chin with his fingers, making him look at him better. He raised his eyebrows.

Liam sighed again, pouting a little as he closed his eyes. “It’s just- It’s so stupid. So forget about it.”

“You can tell me,” said Niall, softly. His hand reached his shoulder, trailing his hand by his skin. “Even if it was stupid, do you know how we stop saying stupid things? By asking and learning things.”

Liam bit his lower lip, looking at him.

“How come you’re all kissing each other and I’m here, like, not being kissed by any of you?” he asked, looking at him straight in the eyes. Even if he raised an eyebrow, there was something in his eyes that broke Niall’s heart and made him frown. "And don't tell me about Louis, 'cause it's not the same."

“I-” He blinked. “I didn’t know that was something you wanted.”

“I think I do. Present tense, not past,” he commented, tilting his head a little. He frowned. “I don’t know yet, not sure. Everything is confusing, but I’m trying to figure it out. I swear I am. But I don’t know what’s stopping you.”

Niall took a deep breath, taking in the mood inside this bedroom. A small laugh escaped his lips, even if the situation was nowhere near funny and he hated himself in that particular moment.

“Well, you were in a relationship and I’m seeing Zayn and Harry,” he murmured.

“Zayn’s told me you three aren’t exclusive,” he said, raising his eyebrows as he pressed himself closer to Niall. Distantly, Niall wanted to scream at the combination of words, because were they really? “And that you’re the best kisser and now Louis says he’s kissed you-”

“We haven’t really talked about that, though, and it was more like, our lips brushed,” said Niall. Everything was a bit to the left, he was sure of it. Everything had shifted to the left and no one else was noticing and he really wanted to fucking scream about it. “And I honestly haven’t had the time to talk about it well with Zayn and Harry, so if you could not tell them-”

“They can’t get mad at you, though,” shrugged Liam, raising his chin. “They’ve both kissed Louis too and you’ve kissed Louis and I’ve kissed Louis, so it’s just us missing to make, like, a pentagon.”

“First of all, I didn’t even know Louis and Zayn had kissed?” Niall frowned. He knew his voice had risen halfway, but what the fuck? He continued thinking about his words, making the calculations in his head. Geometry had never been his strong point, though, so, “And a pentagon doesn’t make sense!”

“Makes complete sense,” huffed out Liam, stepping back and shaking his hair with his hand. “If you don’t want to kiss me, that’s alright, okay? Just tell me so I know what’s going on here because I’m completely lost.”

“You think I know what’s going on here?” asked Niall, another laugh escaping his lips as he raised his hands. “I have no fucking clue either.”

Liam looked at him for a beat before laughing, shaking his head. “The three of you are such idiots. The four of you, really.”

Something settled deep in his stomach, having Liam said it like that.

As if called by the devil, the door opened and closed behind Zayn.

“S’happening?” he mumbled, pressing a kiss on Niall’s temples and going out to embrace Liam.

Liam pushed him away, frowning. “Why haven’t you kissed me?”

Zayn made a little surprised sound, looking at the two of them with wide eyes. “Alright, what’s happening here?”

Niall placed his hands over his, trying to soften his eyes because the poor lad just got here, honestly. “Which, by the way,” he said, after recounting everything. “You and Louis?”

Zayn’s eyes grew wide. “We were super high last night, I swear I was going to tell you and Haz.” He stopped for a second, frowning. “But you and Louis?”

He winced. “Okay, maybe it was last week, I think? And we barely kissed at all!”

“Okay, this is all nice, but we’re talking about me here,” cried out Liam. He bit his lower lip, giving them big eyes. “Can you two just, like, take me out of my misery? At least tell me a no?”

Niall looked at Zayn, biting his tongue. Zayn raised his eyebrows at him.

“It’s, like, I didn’t know,” said Niall, trying to contain the whole nebula of feelings inside those words. He placed his hands over Liam’s.

Liam nodded, biting his lower lip a little more. He looked at Zayn, who sighed a little. Zayn ran his hand by his hair, by his shoulder.

Niall took it all in before forcing himself to take a deep breath. “You can kiss him, if you want.”

Zayn’s breath hitched a little as he turned to look at Niall. “What?”

"Do you want to?"

Zayn looked at him, closing his eyes as he took a deep breath. "I- It'd be nice," he said, shifting a bit in his place as he looked at Niall with wide eyes.

“Liam,” said Niall, turning to him. He squeezed his hands, hoping that he understood. That they all understood. “Can you kind of catch up Harry with all this and ask him what he thinks? Just to make sure we don't mess anything up,” he added, nodding at them. “We’ll stay here.”

Liam nodded, glancing at them for some seconds before leaving the room.

Niall turned to Zayn, taking him by the hand. Niall looked at him, trying to take in the entire moment as he ran his hands by his body until holding his face, remaining there and forcing Zayn’s wandering eyes to meet his.

“You think it’s a good idea for me… and Liam?” he whispered.

Niall sighed a little, letting him lean in into his touch. “I don’t know, honestly. It depends on your feelings. But I don’t think it’s a bad idea.”

Zayn nodded, closing his eyes as Niall stepped closer to him. Niall pressed his lips to that spot below his ear, feeling as Zayn’s body relaxed just a hint. He stayed there, breathing him and counting the seconds as he tried to make sense of his mind.

“It’s, like,” Niall started. There just weren’t words good enough, it felt like. “There’s you and Harry and me. But there’s also Louis. And Liam, too, if you want. So, maybe…” He took a deep breath, feeling Zayn’s hands stopping its movements on his back. “Maybe, I don’t know, but maybe we should reconsider this whole arrangement or whatever we have between us. Talk about it, ‘cause things have changed a bit. Maybe there's room for them too?”

“Really?”

Zayn leaned back a bit, looking Niall in the eyes. Maybe they could swallow Niall whole and nothing would ever, ever happen and nothing would ever change for the worst. He gripped Zayn’s shirt as he kissed him, breathing out in relief as Zayn pulled him closer, grasping him tightly as well.

The door opened. “Oh.”

Liam shuffled a bit by the door, closing it after a few moments.

“So?” asked Zayn.

Liam raised his hands, stepping towards them. He took a deep breath. “He told me I could knock my socks off, but that he wanted to talk to you later. In a good way, not in a bad way.”

Zayn blinked, glancing at Niall before examining Liam once more. “Knock your socks off,” he repeated, nodding once.

“That boy never speaks clearly, doesn’t he?” laughed Niall, resting his head on Zayn’s shoulder as he laughed too. He nudged Zayn’s arm. “It’s not a no, though. So go on.”

Zayn looked at him, eyes all wide. Niall smiled, nodding a bit.

He didn’t know what to feel as he watched them kiss. He wanted to look away and let them have this moment, just for the two of them. Zayn pulled Niall in as Liam smiled against his lips, keeping him near as he wrapped his other arm around Liam. Niall closed his eyes, resting his forehead on Zayn’s shoulder as he tried to breathe away the dislocated feeling in his heart.

Liam laughed. “Oh God, that was even better than I imagined.”

“You spend lots of time thinking about this, huh?” Niall could hear the smile on Zayn’s voice. Liam only laughed harder.

Niall opened his eyes a bit, and they looked so happy, all smiles and laughing against each other’s lips as Zayn kissed him gently and- There was no way he couldn’t be anything but happy too.

Zayn smiled at Niall for a second before kissing him briefly too. And, alright, he understood. He smiled as Liam’s hands found his waist.

His phone beeped from inside his pocket. He rolled his eyes, wanting to ignore it as he rested his forehead against Zayn’s, but then it beeped again. He sighed, taking a step back slowly as he retrieved his phone.

“I’m going to say goodbye to Brez,” he said, shifting a bit in his place. “But we’ll talk later. Tomorrow, maybe? Like, us three and then all of us, I mean.”

They nodded. He pressed a kiss on Zayn’s lips, another on Liam’s cheek before leaving the room.

Later, he looked around the flat. God, he’d forgotten that he left for home in around twelve hours and he hadn’t packed. At least it was pretty much the five of them now, midnight having struck long, long ago and people going off to other afterparties or to their own flats.

Zayn sat on the sofa by him, Harry’s head in his lap as his hands brushed his long hair.

“Yeah, like, people focus so much on sexuality,” he was telling Harry, his eyes a little heavy as he leaned against the armrest. “And, like, I’m not saying it’s not important or anything, but gender, though. Gender’s so weird too when you think about it?”

“I’ve never really thought about it comparatively, I guess,” said Harry.

Niall was definitely not going to survive tonight without one last drink. He pushed himself off the seat to join Louis and Liam in the kitchen, grabbing a new cup on the way.

“Hey, love, you want to help us clean up?”

“I’ll clean up this bottle,” he smirked, swirling its little content and pouring into his cup.

Louis’ hand went up to stop him. “I think that’s enough for now.”

“I know.” He shrugged, mixing in the remaining orange juice. He leaned against the countertops beside Liam, who was a bit too fixated on eating his crisps individually. He grabbed Liam’s hand, taking a swig of his cup before signaling for Louis to come closer.

He pressed a kiss on his cheek. Louis laughed, leaning back. “What was that for?”

“I’ll miss you when we’re away,” he said, smiling at the way his eyes twinkled. He brought up Liam’s hand, placing a kiss on it. “You too, Li.”

“Oh,” he said, placing the plate of crisps on the counter behind them before snuggling up closer to them. “I’ll miss the two of you too.”

“Well, that is all great and lovely, but we still have to start cleaning, though,” murmured Louis.

“I’ve changed my mind, bye,” said Niall, retrieving his arms from around them and grabbing his cup as he ignored Louis’ protests.

He plopped down between Zayn and Harry, laughing a little against his cup as they complained.

“Oh, shut up. You love me like this,” he shrugged, as he repositioned himself so Harry couldn’t tickle him. None of them said anything about it, even as he did a little happy wiggle, because how could he not?

He was just so happy right now. Things were great. A bit confusing, but great. So great, he thought, smiling against Zayn’s shoulder. They were all so great.

“I’m going to miss you two so much,” he murmured.

“Oh, please, no,” groaned out Harry. “You’re going to make me cry again.”

Niall’s hand covered his and, okay. Things were going to be alright, he could feel it.

Harry sat up, much later when the flat was considerably cleaner, looking at the two of them in his bed, before nodding to himself. “Okay, let’s talk.”

“Now?” mumbled Zayn, turning to lay on his back and glaring at Harry.

Niall took a hand to his hair, making him sigh out and close his eyes. “We’re sobered up now and I’m leaving tomorrow.”

Zayn pulled him closer to his side, smiling a little. “You’re not. You’re both going up to me family’s home,” he said, taking Harry by the hand. He hummed a little. “Or maybe I could go to one of yours. I’ve never actually had a proper Christmas dinner, not really.”

Harry laid his head on his chest and kissed one of his foolish tattoos. “Maybe we could arrange something in the future.”

Niall smiled, nodding as Zayn pressed a kiss on Harry’s forehead. He took a deep breath, trying to articulate all his syllables and feelings. “We could. ‘Cause, like, I don’t think we’ve been very casual for some time now, the three of us. I hope I’m not alone in this.”

Harry shook his head as Zayn sighed out.

“You’re not, no,” he agreed, running a hand through Niall’s hair until moving it to cover his yawn.

“I swear to fucking God, Zayn, if you fall asleep in the middle of this...” Harry pushed himself to his elbows, nudging his chest.

“I’m not gonna,” he said, even if his words were still a bit slurred. “So the three of us...”

Harry looked at him before switching his attention to Niall, taking him in. Niall closed his eyes, trying to stay calm as he felt as if Harry’s eyes had the power to dismantle him completely.

“I’ll start, then,” mumbled Harry, shifting a little so he was closer to them. “I want to be with you two. Like, seriously be with you two, none of that casual bullshit. But I also want to be with Louis, ‘cause I love him, like. And I’m, well, I’m hoping we can work something out.”

“I’m open to discussion,” nodded Niall, playing with one of his hands. “But I’m wondering whether there could be space for me and Louis too?”

“Same,” Zayn breathed out, forcing his eyes shut.

Harry’s jaw clenched even more. Niall counted the seconds, preparing an apology with each passing one.

“Can I have some time to think about it?” asked Harry, finally, biting his lower lip. “I want to say yes, but I just… It’s hard, like, even if it’s not that different to what we’re all doing.” He shrugged, frowning a little. “Also, what was all the thing with Liam about?”

Zayn bit his lower lip, glancing at Niall for a second. Niall nodded, explaining their discussion earlier in the night. He pressed a kiss on his shoulder as he finished, allowing Zayn to try to explain the significance of it all properly.

“It’s like, it wasn’t even a possibility, you know? And, please don’t tell Li, ‘cause I don’t want to freak him out, but I told myself I couldn’t for so long,” he said, taking a hand to his face. “But now I can, and it’s like…”

“Okay,” said Harry, kissing his jaw as he brushed away a few stray tears. Niall hummed, brushing his hair away from his forehead and gripping his hand tighter. “Okay, it’s okay, love.”

“We’re going to need to talk about this, later, the five of us. And then give ourselves some time to figure out how things work with the five of us and individually too,” said Niall, pressing a kiss on Harry’s temple. He looked at Zayn. “But maybe some things won’t change that much. It’ll all turn out alright.”

They nodded, both of them seeming reassured. A part of him started to feel similarly, feeling their hands on them as he closed his eyes, forehead against Zayn’s bare chest as he tried to believe his own words.

 

His phone was left forgotten over his old bed stand until late at night, belly full of food and mind full of peace. He unlocked his phone to see the activity on the groupchat throughout the day.

He smiled, pulling the bedcovers enough to crawl beneath them as he read Zayn and Liam’s banter about cooking. And, huh, Zayn _was_ the group admin, what the fuck? How dare he threaten to kick Liam out? How dare he?

He laughed, tapping away until he created a new group chat, aptly named VIVA LA REVOLUCION, and waited for the replies.

Niall laughed out loud, tapping away an _amazing_ to Louis and Harry’s debrief on their day. He smiled, _That sounds a lot more fun than ur nan trying to set u up tho? Like, i know lottssss of single beautiful girls from church whod be gr9 for u!_ He waited for the three little dots to materialize into a message, sinking down in his bed more.

 _First of all, no one’s setting you up with anyone. No. Second of all, gr9?_ Harry’s message read out, quickly followed by Louis’ _doNT !_

He smiled, typing out his _its more than gr8_ and _its gr9._ He sat up straighter, waiting for Louis’ reply.

_Louis: can i use my new admin power to fucking remove your from this chat_

_Niall: nope u love me too much_

_Louis: debatable_

_Liam: omg this is great_

_Liam: soz gr9*_

_Louis: fuck you liam_

_Harry: Are we really going to have to wait a million years for zayn’s reaction?_

_Louis: fyi haz is wine sleepy and his cuddles are the best rn 5/5 would rec_

_Liam: we need to wait 3 to 5 business days remember_

_Niall: but what if im not there to sign the package_

_Liam: clause 3 of the terms and agreements, if zayn does no longer have a fkin nokia, a response may be 1 hour quicker bc there is no ugghhhh liaaaaam typing is sooo haaaard dont blame meee_

Niall laughed, trying to muffle the noise as Harry sent out a _fooooook i accidentally pressed the 7 one more time than i neeedeeed to,  so now i gotta start over agaiinnnn fooooook meeee_

He left his phone over his bed, heading over to the kitchen. He threaded the area carefully after looking at the hour, returning a few minutes to his bedroom with a cup of tea in his hand. His phone’s screen dimmed as he sat down, showing him the last messages.

_Zayn: 1st of all_

_Louis: ooooohhhhhhhhh_

_Zayn: i dont say fooooook thats louis_

_Liam: FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT_

_Zayn: 2nd of all_

_Zayn: what the fuck_

_Niall: what do u mean?_

_Harry: what the foooook_

_Zayn: this is the fuckign opposite of equality_

_Niall: is it?_

_Zayn: this is oligarchy_

_Zayn: it is !!!!_

_Harry: this is the fooookign opposite of equality_

_Zayn: whys everyone admin except me ?!_

_Zayn: shut up haz_

_Niall: this is the way things are going to be until you learn to assume power responsibly_

_Harry: Also don’t fight with us about types of power structures if you’re wrong, by the way. :)_

_Louis: im fuking peeing myself_

_Zayn: goodnight_

_Harry: Lou had to genuinely leave the room, just fyi._

_Niall: soz not soz_

_Louis: cmon up haz im in the kitchen :(((_

_Zayn: goodnight i am leaving to be with my family who LOVES me_

_Liam: also btw so rude that u can be together_

_Niall: so so rude_

_Louis: haaaa suck itttt_

_Zayn: goodnight !_

_Niall: just leave already_

_Harry: yeah_

_Zayn just left this conversation_

Niall laughed out loud, trying to stifle his laughter as he quickly readded Zayn to the conversation again, that fucker.

He smiled, something settling deep in his stomach as he watched the four of them type out in the groupchat. He drank out of his tea. He knew he missed them, even if it had been only two days since they last saw each other. But it was weighing him down and he hated it so much.

He sighed, turning the phone upside down beside his pillow. He took another deep breath, hiding his face against his pillow and willing himself to go to sleep.

He was so intensely glad to be back with his family and his country. And yet the unsettled feeling continued in the bottom of his stomach and the back of his mind as the week went on.

He waved back to Bressie’s family as he closed the front door behind him and the biting wind hit his face.

“Let’s go, go, go,” he said, making a little shuffling dance with his feet.

Bressie laughed, “Alright, alright, alright.”

Which was how he found himself playing darts with Bressie in their favorite pub, some open mic going on behind them but them being a bit far too gone to pay attention to that shit. And perhaps even for darts, looking at the way he hadn’t even gotten near his desired mark.

Huh.

He slumped beside Bressie, resting his head on his arm.

“But, yeah, I heard she’s doing well, though I don’t know why she didn’t come back home this Christmas,” Niall said, shrugging a little.

He shrugged too, pushing himself gently to retrieve their darts. “Maybe she’s settled down there. She had that boyfriend and all that, didn’t she? From all her talk, she sounded super in love, all that head over heels shit people talk about.”

Niall hummed under his breath, picking up his glass and making a little drawing out of the condensation. “Yeah, maybe.”

As if called by the very own devil, he felt his phone vibrate several times on his back pocket. He finished his drink, taking a deep breath to settle himself down as he retrieved his phone. He glanced at Bressie, focused on having the best shot as always, and opened his messages, smiling instantly as he read over Louis’ threats about sharing Harry’s childhood pictures change to sharing the teenage pictures, much to his horror.

He laughed, his fingers hovering for a few seconds over the keyboard before finally pocketing the phone without a word. Because, yeah, it really wasn’t that fair that they were together and he was all alone here in another country.At least he had Bressie.

“Want another and head out?” he asked, pointing to the bar.

They sat on a table, laughing at a comedy sketch that had started out in the open mic by the other side of the pub. It was so bad, it was hilarious, though he guessed he felt a bit bad for them.

He shivered a little as they headed out, mind empty and his body feeling likewise. Bressie’s arm surrounded his shoulders, rubbing them a little as he crossed his arms.

“Alright?” Bressie asked. He nodded. “Alright, then.”

The walk to his house was silent, his arm still around him as his mind switched from being blank to whirring around at a super high speed because- Oh.

Oh.

Yeah, he guessed he’d known he loved them, ‘cause he wanted to be with all of them and wanted to spend time with them in any sense of the word and just… He wanted to settle. Wanted things to settle down inside him and with the four of them too. And it made sense, it wasn’t a surprise, he knew they weren’t casual in any way. It was just-

“Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“No.”

He blinked. “I think I am, though.”

Bressie smiled. “The thing is… If you’re an idiot, then what does that make me?”

He laughed, shaking his head.

“Chin up, yeah?” he said, raising his eyebrows when they stopped outside his house. “Just focus on enjoying your time with your family. Our time here will go by quickly enough if you don’t focus on it, yeah?”

He looked at him, feeling himself nodding.

Bressie messing up his hair a bit. “See you tomorrow.”

“Later,” he said, taking out his keys and waving at him when he opened his front door.

He sat in his bed, all showered and having had a glass of water, reading the remaining messages as he curled up with his duvet. He smiled, typing out a _thast so fukcin stupid_ and quickly adding a _miss you tho_.

He fell asleep as he watched the three dots on his phone, waiting for a reply.

 

It was just like Bressie had said. If he didn’t focus so much on the date, it turned out that the week seemed to pass by a bit quicker. Getting horribly drunk on New Year’s helped and sleeping in most of the first day of the year as well. It pained him a little, but it really wasn’t long until he was rushing out of his London flat after leaving his things and taking a quick shower.

He pocketed his phone, smiling and jumping a little as Harry opened the building’s door.

“Heyo!” he said, wrapping his arms around him. Harry laughed, slumping down to hide his face on his neck and pressing a kiss there. He smiled, feeling how his lips went up to kiss his on the cheek.

He smiled wider as he redirected the kiss, cupping his face with his cold hands. Harry covered them with his own, shivering a little at his touch.

He pressed another quick kiss on his lips, before leaning away enough to smile at him properly.

“I haven’t seen you in so long,” Harry said, smiling and fixing his little hat. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he replied, taking a shaky breath and smiling up at him. “I mean, can you believe it’s been a year already?”

Harry laughed, throwing back his head as he did so. Niall chuckled, taking his hands properly into his as he pulled him down for another snog.

He smiled, relishing for once how thoroughly they kissed when he let Harry do it his way. He took a deep breath, hiding his face on his chest as Harry’s hand rubbed his back.

“You probably want to say hello to Louis, but he fell asleep on the couch before you got here,” he said, leaning back enough to place his hands on his shoulders. “So let’s go to Tesco and get all of our stuff in the meantime?”

He nodded, trying to keep on his smile plastered on his lips as he stepped properly on his feet and settled from having been on his tiptoes.

“Sure, let’s go, go, go,” he said, shuffling his feet once more.

Harry laughed, grabbing his hand as he led him down the road. Niall scurried beside him, pressing himself against him as they walked.

His smile turned and stayed genuine even through Harry’s most horrible puns that made his question his love. He took a deep breath at the thought, watching reach over for the cereal box on the toppest shelf.

“It’s Louis’ favorite,” he said with a shrug.

He smiled, switching his hold on his basket with a soft exhale.

They walked back to Harry’s apartment, placing their things on the countertops and embracing beside them. Niall sighed, breaking the kiss as he pushed himself more against the countertops. He held his hand, looking up at Harry as he brought up his hand to his lips.

“I missed you a lot, you know?”

He smiled, reaching down to hug him properly, nuzzling his face.

“Missed you too,” he murmured, pressing a kiss on his cheek. “So much.”

Niall sighed as Harry led him into another kiss, the hand on his waist keeping him from stumbling against the counter.

“Oh.”

He closed his eyes for a second before glancing over Harry’s shoulder to look at the source of the voice.

“Niall, you’re back,” said Louis, his hair sticking in different directions and his joggers a bit askew as he looked at them with wide eyes.

Harry extracted himself from Niall, clearing his throat lightly before reaching over to the bags on the countertops.

Niall took a deep breath, pushing himself away from the countertops and stepping up to hug Louis before he had the chance to think much about it. He hid his face on Louis’ shoulder, taking in a deep breath as Louis’ hands ran by his sides.

“Hi,” murmured Louis, inching closer to him.

“Hi,” he said, leaning back just enough to brush Louis’ hair until it was somewhat acceptable. He smiled, rolling his eyes a little at Louis’ look.

“You can kiss if you want,” said Harry, from behind them. Niall turned around, taking in how Harry was placing his reusable bag inside a cupboard. He turned, raising his eyebrows at them. “I mean, I’m just saying. I’m okay with it.”

Niall didn’t have enough time to properly look at Louis before he was in his arms. He kissed him back a beat later, relaxing into him as he smiled against his lips.

Louis broke the kiss, resting his forehead on Niall’s before stepping back a bit. He smiled, covering his mouth with a hand, half covered by his jumper's sleeve.

“I’ll stop there, I think,” smiled Louis, laughing a little and his eyes all scrunched up at him. “For now, at least.”

If it were up to him, they wouldn’t. Other languages probably had a word for what he was feeling, the way he wanted to wrap himself around Louis’ sweetness until it was more than enough. He frowned a little, ‘cause what was he even going on about?

“Alright. Baby steps, like,” he muttered, pecking his lips again. He nodded, making Louis’ smile even wider.

“You and Haz are going to do that cook and bake off?” Louis said, when finally looked at the scene behind them. “I genuinely thought you were joking.”

“We are,” he smiled, looking at Harry. “We are genuinely going to cook and bake. You three will be the judges. Even though I’m obviously the best.”

“Excuse me!”

Louis laughed, shaking his head and walking towards the refrigerator.

“C’mon, I’m the best,” said Niall, turning around and raising his hands.

“Not!” Harry said, frowning as he shut a cupboard. He placed his hands on his hips. “I can mention plenty of times your cooking’s been subpar.”

“Well, that’s when I haven’t used a recipe!” he said, shrugging as he grabbed his potatoes. “Not that you know what those are.”

“Real cooking comes from the heart, Niall,” he said, poking his waist. He raised his eyebrows. “Not a book.”

“Okay, okay, let’s take it easy here, shall we?” said Louis, setting down his glass of water on the countertop. “It’s just food. As long as it’s good, there’s no best, alright? Just cook for me.”

“But it’s-”

“Cook for me, I’ve said!”

Niall laughed, flipping him the bird as he turned around to separate his own items.

"Bagsies on the oven," he said.

"Oh, fuck off," snapped Harry.

He laughed.

He was folding the chocolate chips into the mixture when someone knocked multiple times on the door, making Louis jump off from the portion of the countertops where he'd sat at no matter Harry's claims that it was unhygienic.

"Hey," said Niall, putting down the butter and turning around to let Liam into his arms. "Hey."

He could feel the smile of Liam's lips against his neck, his arms squeezing Niall tight. He smiled too, running a hand by Liam's back.

"How are you?" asked Liam, leaning away and placing his hands on his shoulders.

"I'm good," he smiled. "It was nice to be at home for a while, but it's also nice to be back."

"That's good!" smiled Liam back, nodding a little. "I hope you took lots of pictures. Wanna see how that far off land of Ireland is."

Niall huffed out a small laugh. "Okay, ma, yeah, I'll take pictures."

Liam pulled a face, rolling his eyes. 

Niall looked beside him, finding the full sight of Harry pulling Zayn closer into him as they kissed, Louis looking on with a small smile and a soft look in his eyes. Niall smiled too, letting that weird bubbly feeling inside him float around.

Love was so cool.

He still needed to put this in the oven, though. He had stuff to do, unlike Louis, for him to continue watching them.

"What are you making for us?" asked Liam, doing a little dance beside him before wrapping an arm around him. He looked as Niall tried to spread out the butter around the parchment paper.

"It’s a secret."

"A secret what?"

"If I tell you, then it won't be a secret," said Niall, looking up with a smirk.

Liam rolled his eyes a little, reinstating the eye contact as he tried to stop himself from smiling too. He sighed, laying his head on Niall's shoulder.

"I won't tell anyone," whispered Liam.

"Fine," smiled Niall, setting down the pan. "Don't tell anyone, but banana bread."

He raised his eyebrows. "You're using bananas against Harry?"

"Yeah, you know what they say, don't know? Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well?" Niall smiled as Liam laughed, throwing his head back. "Also, I've got choco chips."

"Yum."

"But I've got to put this in the oven pronto, so..."

Liam took a step back, watching as he started to pour the mix into the pan for a few seconds before running off after Louis and the scrapbook of him napping that Harry had given him for his birthday that he absolutely had to see. Niall hummed a little, knowing very well he’d see it later too.

Maybe they should've thought the no-Christmas-gift thing through, he thought with a little sigh.

A well-known hand wrapped itself around his waist right before he felt Zayn press a kiss on his neck from behind.

"Hey, babe."

Niall took a deep breath, giggling a little, "Hey."

"Alright?"

Niall nodded, trying to focus on having all the remaining batter fall into the loaf pan.

"Hey, hey, your hands are shaking. Let me do that for you," he said, taking the bowl and spatula off his hands. He watched for a second, but anything he might've said was lost by Harry's exclamation.

"No, no, no! No one assists anyone!"

"Oh, come off it, I'm just pouring it for him. This will hardly affect the taste of whatever this is," frowned Zayn.

"But-"

"Shush, you," he said, pouring the last of his batter and giving a pointed look to Harry. He turned to Niall, "What was that thing you were supposed to do?"

"What?" he said, another set of giggles escaping his lips.

"Like, to spread out the batter or shit, I dunno," he shrugged.

"Oh, right, right."

Finished. Done. Hecho in that oven, which was one thing out of three that he was doing tonight.

"So what's that you put in the oven, then?" asked Zayn, his hands returning to those spots on his waist.

He laughed, hiding his face on his shoulder as his hands started to move around. "It's a secret, bruh."

"But you told Liam, huh, bruh?"

Another set of giggles escaped from his lips. "No?"

"I'm pretty sure you did, though. 'Cause you can't say no to him, can't you?"

"Yeah, well, I like him more than I like you, so..." He shrugged, leaning back against the countertops.

Zayn’s eyes told him he knew exactly the way Niall’s heart was going a thousand beats per minute and his nerves far too jittery for something like this. And that was alright, Niall gathered, closing his eyes a little, except he'd perhaps lied to himself a little when he told himself on the airplane that he was ready to face on the grandiosity of his feelings.

And, nope. He was definitely not ready to face them, not here, not know.

He pulled Zayn closer by his shirt and kissed his lips open. He took a sharp breath as Zayn’s hands squeezed his hips and pushed him against the countertops enough to make him draw a soft noise.

He pulled him in, savoring the way he hadn't had him in the past week and a half, hoping that it would explain some of the desperation in his lips.

Zayn broke the kiss, hiding his face on his neck and pressing a kiss over his clavicle.

"Missed you, babe," he muttered, moving up his lips to press another kiss on his jaw.

He took in a deep breath, closing his eyes for just a second before taking his face in his hands.

"Missed you too, love," he muttered, pulling him in for another kiss.

He smiled, revelling in the way his hands stayed steady on his back and, yeah, alright.

Niall gasped, pushing himself away from Zayn as water fell on him and hitting his head on the cupboards in the process.

"What the fuck?"

"Why?"

Harry shut the faucet, a little frown on his face as he stopped laughing. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he said, stepping away from the area nevertheless. "But what the fuck?

"This…” He laughed. “This canoodling is unhygienic!"

"But it didn't bother you so much when it was with you, though," pointed out Zayn, raising his eyebrows and smirking a little.

"Out," said Harry, smirking back and pushing him a little.

"I don't think that's necessary," said Niall, stepping between them.

"Did you put a timer on your bake or did he distract you?" asked Harry, raising his eyebrows.

Niall's eyes grew wide as he turned around to look at the oven quickly. "Out," he said, pushing Zayn by the chest.

"Oh, come on, that's hardly my fault!” he said, placing his hands over his.

Niall pushed them away. "Out!"

Zayn huffed out, turning around and joining Liam and Louis on the sofa on the far off side of the flat.

"Hey," said Niall, grabbing Harry's hand before he walked away. He pressed a kiss into his hand. Harry rolled his eyes, pecking a kiss on his lips.

"Unsanitary!"

"Shut the fuck up, Zayn!" said Harry.

Niall laughed, joining Louis and Liam's distant ones. He flipped him the bird, seeing as Louis pinned him down on the sofa next to a laughing Liam.  

Hours later, and another kicking-out of the kitchen later because Louis insisted on taking a bit out of his potato salad, they were almost done.

"Are you sure you wanna do chicken, though?" smiled Harry, crossing his arms as he waited for his things to finish baking.

"Yeah."

"Chicken?"

He rolled his eyes, flipping the chicken on the skillet. "I know what you're thinking, but here's what I'm thinking: Redemption."

Harry laughed, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Redemption, Harry!"

He raised his hands. "Alright, but don't come crying at me when it's dry and you lose."

He smirked, shrugging again and paying more attention to the chicken on the skillet.

He sighed some moments later after asking Louis to start setting the table. He frowned, finding Zayn and Liam hunched together speaking near the bathroom. He looked behind him, considering using the one on Harry's room instead.

"Oh," said Liam, standing up straight and away from the wall.

A strange sort of tension filled the hallway, the sort of where you knew people had been talking about you before your arrival, until Liam cleared his throat.

"I should let you two have some alone time for the moment," he said, turning around and leaving them alone.

Zayn's hands reached out for him. He breathed in, accepting Zayn’s hug and closing in on him, laying his head on his chest. He closed his eyes for a moment, playing with one of the buttons on Zayn’s shirt.

"We're alright, aren't we, Niall?" he asked.

He pulled back, frowning a little. "Of course we are," he said, a little laugh on his lips as he looked at his expression. "Are we?"

"I guess then, yeah," he said, shrugging a little. One of his hands went up to cup his face, raise his chin a little to look at him better. "You're alright, too?"

Niall laughed, nodding a little. "What's up?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. I'm still trying to figure it out, you know. I’m happy to be here, though, so don’t think it’s that, by the way," he added, looking at Niall.

He pushed himself away, rolling his eyes and keeping that smile on his lips. "Well, I gotta go to the bathroom quick, but the food's done, so whatever it is you're trying to figure out, it can wait until later, don't you think?"

He nodded, slipping his hand away as he walked to the bathroom.

He took a moment before heading back, fixing his hair and taking a bit of a breather, nodding to himself as he repeated the same words he'd told Zayn.

"Heyo, heyo! Let's eat!"

"Finally!" sighed out Louis, taking a scoop out of the potato salad and starting to pass it along the table. "After asking us not to have lunch, you should've let us eat sooner."

"Louis," sighed out Niall. "No one asked you not to have lunch."

"Stupid," muttered Harry under his breath.

"Don't call him stupid," snapped Zayn.

“I didn’t say he was stupid,” said Harry, rolling his eyes. “I said what he said was stupid.”

"Peace and love," said Liam, spreading his hands over the table. "Peace and love. And food! But mostly peace and love."

"And a lot of mayonnaise on this potato salad, but peace and love are also important, sure," said Louis, rolling his eyes at Liam.

"This recipe has probably been handed down from generations, Louis, so shut the fuck up," snapped Liam.

"I mean, Harry and me did ask for constructive criticism, so that's alright," said Niall, placing his hand on Liam's thigh. He laughed, "Also, I actually took it from one of those Facebook vids, but that doesn't mean you can badmouth it horribly. I have feelings."

"Also! Don't forget to put some tomato ganache over your meat loaf!" said Harry, doing a little dance on his seat.

Zayn sighed beside him. "It's ketchup."

Harry rolled his eyes, making Zayn sigh again with a little smile as he inched closer to him.

"Fine, I'll get some of that tomato ganache too, if it'll make you happy. I’m sorry, babe," he said, pressing a kiss on his temple.

"Well, at least now you know better," he said, pressing a kiss on Zayn's lips and patting his hair.

Niall ate. At least his chicken wasn't dry.

The rest of the meal passed silently, the only interruptions being soft comments on “this could use a little bit more salt” and “why is there so much food? we did not plan this through.” Niall moved the bits of meat loaf on his plate, looking around the table and not missing the look Zayn directed at Louis as he remarked on something about his banana bread.

“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath. “We need to talk. What in the fucking hell are we doing?”

Louis raised his eyebrows. “We’re eating, Niall. You need to enhance your sugar a bit more, I think.”

“Yeah, maybe salt would help?” said Liam, placing his fork down.

“Salt?” asked Zayn with a frown.

Niall sighed. “C’mon…”

“I’ve read it helps!” he said, raising his hands

“Wait, so is my chocolate cake alright?” asked Harry, raising in his seat and leaning forward.

“Well, yeah, yours is sweet enough, I think, but Niall’s more moist, though,” muttered Liam. Louis laughed loudly. “Oh, shut up. You know what I mean.”

“Well, I think Niall should get a point or two for using bananas against Harry,” said Zayn, resting his head over his hand and looking at him.

He huffed out a little laugh, trying to release all the goddamn energy that was inside of him as Harry complained about preferential treatment.

“Alright?” Zayn muttered lightly, leaning in closer. His hand squeezed his thigh a little.

“Um, yeah, f’course,” he smiled, laughing a little bit more.

“Shut up, won’t you?” he said to the others.

“Okay,” said Niall, placing his hands over the table. “Honestly, I’m kind of freaking out a little? I just- I don’t know what the five of us are doing and I don’t mean here right now because I know we’re just eating and everything. I mean, what are we doing?”

“Oh,” said Harry, raising his eyebrows and sitting up straight. “We’re having the group talk.”

“Actually, yeah, let’s talk,” said Liam, leaning against the table.

They all looked at each other..

“I think someone needs to start talking for us to have a talk,” pointed out Zayn, his hand running by Niall’s leg.

“If you’re so smart, then,” said Harry.

Zayn rolled his eyes. “Did you have something in mind, Ni?”

He laughed. “No. Well, yes, but I didn’t think I’d get this far, honestly, so not really.”

Zayn huffed out a little laugh, running a hand by his hair as he carefully explained the talk the three of them had had last time, that night after Louis' party. “So, um, that’s us. So, yeah. I don’t know if I forgot something or if you want to add-”

“It’s okay if you want to be with Zayn too, as well as Ni, by the way,” muttered Harry, looking at Louis. “I’m okay with it.”

Louis’ eyes grew wide, leaning a bit back on his seat. “I don’t want to overstep or anything.”

“It’s not overstepping if we’re telling you it’s alright,” said Niall, tearing the little napkin into smaller pieces.

“And if it’s overstepping, then I’m am too, so you’re not alone,” said Liam, biting his lip a little. “But I think it would be better if I did it slowly. Like, I haven’t been single for long time and I don’t- I don’t want to fuck this up.”

“Okay,” said Zayn, nodding a little.

"I'm sure we have room for you too, when you want to join us," nodded Niall.

"Yeah, always," assured Harry, making Liam sigh out a bit. 

“Also, you’re a pretty good lay,” said Liam, looking at Louis before anyone else had a chance to say anything. “We should do that again.”

Niall laughed, relieved when the other two joined him. They should take a break, though, to let Louis’ eyes return to their normal size, Niall thought as he smiled at him.

“What? I thought…”

Liam shrugged, biting his lower lip. “I kinda wasn’t sure on how to go on about that? I'm sorry.”

“What?”

Liam exhaled, standing up to kiss Louis as he sat in his lap. Niall smiled watching as he knocked a punch on Liam’s waist and called him an idiot.

“Yeah, now we’re talking,” said Harry, clapping his hands. “Liam, worse case scenario, you can always write Saint Valentine cards. What a sap.”

“Fuck you.”

“But I’ve always said that I would fit a polyamorous relationship best,” continued Harry, tilting his head as he looked at the two of them. He frowned a little. “Have I said that before?”

“Yep,” said Zayn with a nod, a contained smile on his lips.

Niall placed his hands over the table. “Is that… Is that what we are? Kind of?”

“I think we pretty much are, yeah,” muttered Zayn. “I’m not… I’m not sure how or, like, why, but-”

“Yes, but we can talk about those details later. We have time and we’ll figure things out as we go,” waved off Harry, moving his chair closer to beside Louis. “But if we’re going to kiss now, then I haven’t kissed Liam before and I want to do that if that's alright with him.”

Niall smiled, watching as Harry redirected Liam to a snog. Maybe he would never be able to describe the relief he felt as he looked at Louis watching them with a smile too. He glanced at Zayn, meeting his eyes as he leaned back on his chair with his arms crossed.

“C’mere,” he muttered to Zayn, waving him in.

“Why can’t you come here?”

Niall rolled his eyes. “Lazy arsehole,” he said, stepping out of his chair and laying on his lap, his back against his chest. Niall took his hand as Zayn kissed his neck a little, making him laugh out a bit.

“Even if this doesn’t work out, we’re gonna be alright, yeah?” Niall muttered, turning around to look at him better while he played with his hands. “’Cause I’ve gotten too fond of you four and I don’t know what I’d do without you, honestly.”

Zayn hummed under his breath. “Yeah. Like Harry said, we’ll figure it out.” He closed his eyes, resting his head against Niall’s before a smile spread on his lips. “Maybe you and Liam can do the spreadsheets on how this all works.”

He laughed, leaning more against Zayn as Liam turned around to look at them, Harry laughing out at something Louis had said.

“I heard that!”

Zayn joined him as he laughed, throwing his head back against him. He sighed out, moments later, because, okay, they’re going to be alright.

 

~

 

Niall made to open the door, but stepped back in time to avoid being hit by it as it opened from the outside.

Harry slid through the door. “Hey, you.”

Niall blinked, looking at his hair. Or lack of it. Anything he might’ve said was lost as he reached towards him and kissed him briefly.

“Uh, did you have a good day?” Niall asked, pushing him away a little.

“Amazing,” he muttered, placing a softer kiss on his forehead.

“Eventful?”

“Yeah, my meeting with Professor Adnane went so well, Ni… And you’re probably asking about my hair,” he said, stepping back and running a hand tentatively through his shorter hair.

It wasn’t even long enough for it to reach his ears, what the fuck.

“Hey, Ni, Louis forgot to tell you to also get-” Zayn stepped into the short hall, pointing to the rest of the flat. He stopped in his track, lowering his hand. “What the fuck.”

“I…”

The door opened again. Liam fit his sweaty self through the space, looking around, frown on his face as he removed an earbud.

“What is going on here? What’s the commotion, bromotion?”

The three of them took a deep breath as Liam’s eyes stopped at Harry.

“Ohhhh, shit,” smiled Liam.

“First of all, I heard Liam say bromotion and we’ve talked about this! No!” said Louis, turning around the hallway with a plastic container in hand. He looked up, his eyes hovering on Harry for a second before glancing around the rest of the room. He stared at Harry for one, two- “Forget about the second thing, because you. Explain.”

“So,” said Harry, holding out his hands and doing a little dance before looking for his phone in his pockets. “I was going to talk to Professor Adnane today, right? That’s the one where the A’s for God, the B’s are for the Queen and the C is for the bestest students out there, right?”

“The hair!” cried out Louis. “Explain the hair.”

“I’m getting to that!” exclaimed Harry. “Long story short, since you don’t _care-_ ”

Liam made a soft sound. “No, we do care.”

“Well, he agreed to advise me next year for my dissertation, long story short. Which-”

Niall did a little yell, laughing a little as he went up and hugged him and felt someone else hugging Harry too. God, he loved group hugs so much and no one was absolutely smashing his face this time, this was so great.

“I told you you were well prepared,” cheered out Zayn.

“Okay, yes, hugs, celebration, but hair!”

“Okay! Okay! So I was walking down the road on my way here and I pass this hair salon and it just… felt right, you know?” he shrugged. He unlocked his phone. “I wish there was a better story to it, but I took pictures at least?”

Louis looked at the phone, swiping as the others tried to look at the screen. And in fact, there were a lot of pictures of him doing funny faces at different stages of his hair cut. Niall guessed a few of them were meant to be serious, but he wasn’t sure how well that turned out for him.

“I need a moment,” said Louis, turning around and heading off into the flat. Harry watched as he walked away, his hand dropping a little.

“I’m sweaty, so no more hugs and kisses from me, but you look great, Haz. Don’t sweat it,” smiled Liam, taking his hand lightly.

“Heyyyyy” laughed Harry, throwing his head back.

“You have three minutes to get unsweaty, Mr. Sweaty McSweat,” said Niall, pointing at Liam.

“Five,” he glared.

“Three,” he repeated. He raised an eyebrow.

"Fine."

“Idiots,” said Zayn, looking at an uncertain spot on the floor. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”

“And you love us like this,” said Liam, pecking a quick kiss on his lips before heading off to the bathroom.

“Unfortunately,” he muttered.

Niall smiled, rolling his eyes at him. He laid down on the futon, hiding his face on Louis’ shoulder as Harry mumbled out words against his face.

“Everything’s changing, what the fuck,” muttered Louis.

"That's how life is, my love."

Louis sighed as Niall tightened his hold on him. “But that’s okay, I guess I still love you with your hair short.”

“Careful,” said Zayn. They shifted a little as he opened the futon, a soft thud ringing around the flat. “Honestly, you two were so smart by getting a futon.”

“My idea,” said Louis, pushing Harry a little as he propped up on his elbows.

“It was not,” said Harry.

“It was! ‘Cause I’m the smartest of the bunch.”

“Oh, no, you fucked up, mate,” said Zayn, squeezing himself between them and biting Louis’ shoulder. “I’m the smartest.”

Niall rolled off just in time, his chest shaking with his laughs. “Idiots, I’m the smartest!”

Zayn’s eyes considered him, before shoving Louis a little. “Fair enough. I’m the second smartest, mate. Apologize to me and Niall.”

“Nope,” smiled Louis.

Niall saved himself as Harry shoved Zayn’s shoulder, complaining under his breath. The other three were still in that weird state between roughhousing and laughing too much when Liam joined them, wrapping himself around Niall and pressing his lips to his chest. “What are my muscles? I don’t know.”

“Aw, babe,” muttered Niall, running his hand through his wet hair. He breathed in, smiling against his head. “That’s okay. We don’t have to do anything else right now.”

Because they were okay. They were good. They were alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Again, you can find Natalie on tumblr [here](http://zaynmonet.tumblr.com) and her bomb-ass mix here.
> 
> I don't use tumblr v consistently these days - it depends - but if u wanna chat, here's my [personal](http://acciowriting.tumblr.com). Thanks for reading!


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